Gian Chand Gupta unanimously elected Haryana Assembly speaker

BJP MLA Gian Chand Gupta was unanimously elected the speaker of the Haryana Assembly on Monday while senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda the Leader of Opposition.

A two-time MLA from Panchkula, Gupta's name was proposed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and seconded by Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala. The opposition members too backed him.

The election of the deputy speaker will be taken up later, Gupta informed the House.

He also said that Hooda, who was recently appointed as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the state by his party, is recognised as the Leader of Opposition.

In the Assembly election, Gupta defeated Congress's Chander Mohan Bishnoi, the son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal.

Earlier, pro-tem speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian administered oath to Khattar, Dushyant and other legislators.

Dushyant, Ram Kumar Gautam, Rajinder Singh Joon, Chiranjeev Rao, Jagbir Singh Malik and Bishan Lal Saini were among the MLAs who took oath in English while three members including Kamal Gupta took oath in Sanskrit.

Former hockey captain and BJP MLA Sandeep Singh was the lone member who took oath in Punjabi.

After Khattar and Dushyant, the pro-tem speaker administered oath to nine women members that included three from the BJP, five from Congress and the lone woman MLA and Dushyant Chautala's mother Naina Chautala of the the Jannayak Janata Party.

In the 90-member Assembly, the strength of BJP is 40, its ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10, Independents seven, Congress 31, and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) one each.

Addressing the members, Chief Minister Khattar, who is the Leader of the House, at the outset congratulated Gupta, former mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, for being elected unanimously.

Khattar said he would like to appeal to members that it is collective responsibility of all the members to ensure that the House is run smoothly.

Khattar informed that as many as 44 out of 90 MLAs of the 14th Haryana Assembly have been elected for the first time.

There are veterans like Anil Vij of BJP and Raghuvir Singh Kadian of Congress, who have been elected for the sixth time, he said.

"Nine women members have been elected this time as against 13 in previous assembly. Dushyant Chautala is the youngest member to have been elected this time," he said.

Khattar said that opposition has a crucial role to play in a democratic set up.

"If they play constructive role, the state will benefit. However, sometimes criticism for the sake of criticism does not help," he said.

"I had said this last time too that members should refrain from using such words which can hurt sentiments of any member or break the House decorum," he said.

Abhay Chautala told the newly-elected speaker that all the members, especially first-timers, will have great hopes from the Chair that he will discharge duties in an impartial manner.

He hoped that opposition members will be given due time to raise public importance and other issues in the House.

The speaker thanked the members for unanimously electing him and sought their cooperation in running the House in a smooth manner.