Puducherry: Pro-tem speaker V P Sivakolunthu administered the oaths of office and secrecy to elected members of the Puducherry assembly, barring an All India NR Congress (AINRC) MLA, on Thursday.
He administered the oath to 21 MLAs (14 Congress, two DMK, four AIADMK and a lone independent candidate) as soon as the assembly session convened for the first time after election.
AINRC founder-president and former chief minister N Rangasamy and his party MLAs boycotted the session. Later, Rangasamy and six of his party MLAs were sworn in as MLAs by the pro-tem speaker at the latter's chamber. AINRC MLA S V Sugumaran from Mangalam constituency could not take charge as an elected members due to health reasons.
The elected members barring health minister Malladi Krishna Rao from Yanam, Puducherry's enclave in Andhra Pradesh and independent candidate V Ramachandran from Mahe, territory's enclave in Kerala, took the oath in Tamil. Rao took oath in Telugu and Ramachandran in Malayalam.
The assembly will convene again on June 11 to elect the speaker and deputy speaker. Former chief minister V Vaithilingam filed his nomination for the speaker post while Sivakolunthu did for the deputy speaker's post.
Rangasamy downplayed the boycott of the session and also his decision to take oath at pro-tem speaker's chamber separately. "Our party MLAs decided to take the oath separately at the pro-tem speaker's chamber as per our convenience," he said.
He gave an evasive reply to query on the announcement of the legislature party leader, who will be the leader of opposition in the assembly. He replied in affirmative when asked whether he had sought an appointment with AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa.
AINRC and AIADMK contested 2016 assembly poll independently and bagged eight and four seats respectively in the 30-member assembly.
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