New Bihar MLAs take oath in assembly

Patna: Wearing designer "Bandis" (waist coat), "Paag" (customary cap of Maithla region), the newly elected Legislators took oath today as members of the 16th state Legislative Assembly.

The oath taking function which was scheduled on the opening day of the maiden session of the new House could not be taken up yesterday due to death of RLSP MLA Basant Kumar and was done today.

Since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is member of state Legislative Council, hence Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav was first to take oath.

The CM was present in the House and greeted the newly elected members.

Tejaswi was followed by brother Tej Pratap Yadav, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Ashok Choudhary, Shrawan Kumar in the pecking order.

After oath taking by leader of Opposition Prem Kumar, the MLAs were called in accordance with the serial number of the constituency to take oath and sign a register.

Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of RJD President Lalu Prasad, who was asked by Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind to read the pledge for a second time during swearing in function on November 20, did not fault this time.

But, many other members fumbled and were told by Protem speaker Sadanand Singh to read the words of the pledge correctly.

Senior BJP member Bhagirathi Devi from Ramnagar in West Champaran district had great difficulty in reading the words in the written pledge. Protem Speaker asked her to read correctly and even spell the words and asked her to repeat them.

Later, Bhagirathi Devi was heard telling the Protem Speaker that he made her read the pledge four times.

The Protem Speaker had to remind a large number of members that they have to take pledge either in the name of "Ishwar" (god) or "Satya Nishtha" (allegiance to truth) and not both.

He was heard asking members not to use mobile phones inside the House and even reprimanded a member for clicking photograph from his cell phone of members taking oath.

Fumbling and forgetting due procedure could not be helped considering the fact that there are 99 first timers in the newly constituted 16th Bihar Legislative Assembly.

While majority of members took oath in Hindi, some read the pledge in Maithli, Urdu, Sanskrit and English, the five languages permissible for the purpose.

Faraz Fatmi, new RJD MLA from Keoti in Darbhanga who is son of former Union minister M A A Fatmi was the lone member to take oath in English.

Mithilesh Tiwari of BJP who has won from Baikunthpur in Gopalganj read the pledge in Sanskrit which was greeted by members with thumping of desk.

Akhtar-ul Islam Sahin, Mohammad Nematullah, Naushad Alam and Abdul Subhan took oath in Urdu.

But, Shakil Ahmed Khan of Congress, Tausheef Alam and Mohammad Illiyas Hussain read the pledge in Hindi.

Bhawna Jha, Sanjay Sarawagi and Jeevach Jha read the oath in Maithli.

Former minister and JD(U) MLA Bima Bharti fumbled in reading the oath in Hindi and was helped by the Protem speaker.

Former Chief Minister and lone member of Hindustani Awam Morcha Jitan Ram Manjhi took oath as member from Imamganj reserved seat. He later went to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and others who greeted him.

Manjhi graciously greeted RJD MLA Subedar Das who trounced him at Makhdumpur reserved seat in Jehanabad.

Some women members got confused with gender and were heard spelling "Sapath leta hun" which the Protem speaker pointed to them and ask them to read correctly.

Some young members showed respect to elders and touched feet of CM, Protem speaker, Manjhi and others.

Former minister and JD(U) MLA Ranju Geeta touched feet of CM Nitish Kumar as well Protem speaker after reading pledge.

Savitri Devi, the newly elected MLA from Chakai which figured at number 243 was the last to take oath.

Some members who were not present when their name was called during pre-lunch session took the oath after recess.

The day ended with oath taking ceremony of the new members.

The Legislative Assembly would elect a new Speaker tomorrow.