New MLAs take oath as House proceedings begin

RANCHI: Protem Speaker Stephen Marandi on Monday administered the oath to the newly elected members of the legislative assembly on the first day of the four-day Jharkhand assembly session.

- Vishal Kant

As per officials, barring the protem speaker, 80 out of 81 members in the House took the oath on Monday. The oath-taking began with chief minister Hemant Soren, his cabinet colleagues, and the legislature party leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), followed by other legislators.

While the majority of the legislators took the oath in Hindi, a few read out their oaths in regional languages, including Santhali, Ho, Mundari, Khortha, and Kurmali. Among the ministers, Deepika Pandey Singh took her oath in Angika, Hafizul Hasan in Urdu, and Deepak Birua in Ho. The rest, including chief minister Hemant Soren, took the oath in Hindi. A few Congress legislators, including minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey, took the oath holding a copy of the Constitution in their hands.