BJP MLA Harvinder Kalyan unanimously elected Haryana Assembly Speaker

Chandigarh: BJP MLA Harvinder Kalyan was unanimously elected speaker of the Haryana Assembly here on Friday.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini moved a resolution in the House proposing Kalyan's name while BJP MLA Ranbir Gangwa seconded the proposal.

Kalyan is a three-time MLA from Gharaunda in Karnal district.

Prior to Kalyan's election as speaker, Protem Speaker and senior Congress leader Raghuvir Singh Kadian administered oath to the newly elected MLAs of the 90-member House.

Kalyan, who assumed the Chair, after being elected as speaker, was congratulated by the chief minister and his party MLAs, Congress MLAs, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, INLD MLAs Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala, and several other legislators.

Earlier, Saini and other newly-elected MLAs were administered oath as member of the House of the 15th state Assembly.

Pro-tem Speaker and senior Congress leader Raghuvir Singh Kadian administered oath to the newly elected MLAs.

Saini, who was sworn-in as the Haryana chief minister on October 17 in Panchkula, was the first one to be administered oath by the Protem Speaker.

After Saini, his council of ministers -- seven-time MLA from Ambala Cantt Anil Vij, Israna MLA Krishan Lal Panwar, Badshahpur MLA Rao Narbir Singh, Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda, Faridabad legislator Vipul Goel, Gohana MLA Arvind Sharma and Radaur MLA Shyam Singh Rana -- were administered oath by the Protem Speaker.

Among ministers, Barwala MLA Ranbir Gangwa, Narwana MLA Krishan Kumar Bedi, Tosham legislator Shruti Choudhry, Ateli MLA Arti Singh Rao, Tigaon MLA Rajesh Nagar and Palwal legislator Gaurav Gautam were administered oath.

Bedi took oath in Sanskrit while Choudhry took oath in English.

After the council of ministers, women MLAs were administered oath.

Among them were BJP MLA Bimla Chaudhary, Congress MLA and former minister Geeta Bhukkal, BJP MLA Krishna Gahlawat, Congress MLA Manju Choudhary, Congress MLA Pooja, Independent MLA Savitri Jindal, BJP MLA Shakti Rani Sharma, Congress MLA Shakuntla Khatak and Congress MLA and Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat.

Phogat, who was wearing a sports jersey, said 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Khiladi, Jai Naujawan and Jai Haryana' after taking oath.

After taking oath, former chief minister Hooda exchanged greetings with Chief Minister Saini and Vij, both of whom were seated together, and shook hands with them.

MLAs, including Nirmal Singh, Ghanshyam Saraf, Kapoor Singh, Satpal Sangwan were also administered oath besides INLD members Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala.

Congress MLAs Jassi Petwar and Vikas Saharan after taking oath, said "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Samvidhan".

In the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP returned to power for a third consecutive term by winning 48 seats, while the Congress won 37 seats. The INLD won two seats and three Independents were also elected.