Tripura Assembly witnessed two incidents on Wednesday (March 15)- perhaps firsts of its kind in the history of the State.
After the Assembly election-2023 process was over on March 2 with the announcement of results and total nine Ministers including Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha took oath on March 8 last in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National president JP Nadda, today was the time for Protem Speaker to take oath followed by swearing-in programme of MLAs of all the parties Thursday (March 16) and Friday (March 17).
As announced earlier, Binoy Bhusan Das took oath as the Protem Speaker of the House. Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered oath to Binoy Bhusan Das at Raj Bhawan in Agartala today. Das was elected from Pabiachhara Assembly Constituency.
Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha and other ministers – Ratanlal Nath, Pranajit Singha Roy, Sushanta Chowdhury, Tinku Roy, Santana Chakma, Bikas Debbarma and Shukla Charan Jamatia attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Besides, Chief Secretary J.K. Sinha, Advocate General Siddhartha Shankar Dey and ADG Sourabh Tripathi also attended the oath ceremony.
After the swearing-in ceremony, the Chief Minister and other ministers greeted the Protem Speaker.
Soon after, Binoy Bhusan Das assumed office, Union Minister of State, Pratima Bhowmik who was elected as an MLA from Dhanpur Assembly Constituency, resigned from the Assembly. Pratima Bhowmik is all in probability the first MLA in Tripura resigning even before taking an oath as MLA.
She submitted her resignation to the Protem Speaker – this is also another first timer as Binoy Bhusan Das was the first Protem Speaker in State to whom an MLA before taking an oath submitted a resignation.
Speculations were rife over the resignation of Pratima Bhowmik. She, the union MoS of the Social Justice and Empowerment, contested from Dhanpur and was elected as an MLA. She had to quit either from the central cabinet or State Assembly.
In a tweet, Bhowmik said she had resigned as per the directions of the party’s central leaders.
