Ruling Congress member elected as Deputy Speaker unopposed

Ruling Congress MLA M N R Balan was on Thursday elected unopposed as Deputy Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly.

After the question hour, the Speaker V P Sivakolundhu announced in the House that Balan was elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker.

He said Balan was only candidate who filed the nominations for the election.

Speaker of Assembly, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues and the members belonging to the DMK (alliance partner of Congress) felicitated Balan.

As soon as he was inducted as Deputy Speaker, the Speaker requested him to conduct the subsequent proceedings of the House and the Speaker retired to his chamber for a while.

Balan is the first time legislator and represents the Uzhavarkarai Assembly segment in the Puducherry region. He was chairman of Puducherry government owned Tourism Development Corporation which post he resided before filing his nomination.

After taking charge he said he would hold scales even while conducting the proceedings whenever opportunity was available to him.