The newly-elected members of Sikkim Legislative Assembly on Monday took oath of the membership of the House.
The Pro-Tem Speaker Sangay Lepcha administered oath to the newly-elected MLAs during the day-long sitting of the House.
Eight members, including former Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, took oath in Nepali language, while one MLA each took in Lepcha and Bhutia languages respectively.
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The rest of the MLAs took oath in English. As soon as the House sat for the day, new Chief Minister P.S. Golay went up to the seat of his predecessor Mr.Chamling and greeted him before taking his seat in the House.
Before the oath ceremony took place, the Pro-Tem Speaker announced that three legislators Mr.Chamling, Mr.D.T. Lepcha and Mr.Kunga Nima Lepcha have vacated one out of two Assembly seats from where they were elected.
While Mr.Chamling and his party colleague D.T. Lepcha vacated Poklok-Kamrang seat and Martam-Rumtek seats, the SKM legislator and HRD Minister Kunga Nima Lepcha left Gangtok seat.
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In all, 28 MLAs took oath of the membership of the House. Mr. Golay is not the member of the House at present.
The House subsequently elected the SKM first-term MLA L.B. Das as the Speaker by consensus, while the Pro-Tem Speaker Sangay Lepcha was elected as the Deputy Speaker.
As soon as the Speaker had settled on his chair, Mr.Chamling made an impromptu statement questioning the legitimacy of P.S. Golay’s appointment as the Chief Minister in the wake of his conviction to one year’s imprisonment in a corruption case by a lower court of Sikkim in late 2016 which the later had served out after the Sikkim High Court had upheld a year later.
Even as Mr.Chamling could complete his speech, the House was thrown in a turmoil as several treasury members got agitated and strongly rebutted the former Chief Minister’s contentious remarks.
The Speaker L.B. Das later expunged Mr.Chamling’s remarks as well as those by the members of treasury benches.
In his maiden speech in the 19th Sikkim Legislative Assembly, Mr.Golay, the Leader of the House, regretted the unfortunate remarks made against him by his predecessor and said that his appointment as the Chief Minister is legitimate.
Mr.Golay said that he wished to take everybody, including the Opposition, along in taking Sikkim on the path of development and prosperity over the next five year.