New Assembly takes shape in Chhattisgarh

The Fourth Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly (CLA) was constituted in Chhattisgarh Monday with debate starting for the post of Deputy Speaker that ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to retain.

"There had been a parliamentary tradition that the post of deputy speaker had been given to the opposition (Congress) and the leader of the House (Chief Minister Raman) should establish it," Amit Jogi, first time Congress legislator and son of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, sparked off the debate.

It was the Congress that broke the tradition in 2001 by removing BJP's deputy speaker (Banwarilal Agrawal) when it was in power in the first Assembly, senior BJP legislator Shivratan Sharma contested.

He added that the Congress party should consider the point before taking about the parliamentary tradition.

Jogi said since the new Assembly was in place, the ruling party members should also avoid digging out old issues. Since the chief minister had talked about establishing rich parliamentary tradition in the House, this (appointment of deputy speaker from opposition benches) could be a start, he added.

While the House elected Gourishankar Agrawal as the Speaker soon after it assembled for the first time after the November 2013 state polls, no decision could be taken on the post of deputy speaker. Earlier, the 90 members were given oath in the House in which BJP had obtained an absolute majority.

In the November polls, the ruling BJP retained the power for the third term in a row by defeating Congress in a closely fought elections.

The party bagged 49 seats while Congress was confined to 39 seats. Besides a rebel BJP candidate, Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) bagged one seat.