The senior BJP MLA from Panisagar (SC) assembly constituency Binoy Bhusan Das was on Wednesday sworn in as Protem speaker of the assembly during a simple ceremony in the ‘Durbar Hall’ of Raj Bhavan.

Tripura Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath of office in presence of Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and council of ministers along with other dignitaries.

Chief Secretary J K Sinha, Advocate General Sidhartha Sankar Dey and Additional DGP Sourav Tripathi were also present in the oath taking ceremony.

Protem Speaker Das will remain in the post until a new full-fledged speaker is elected or selected by the new assembly scheduled to meet in first session on March 24.

After the oath taking ceremony, Das speaking with media persons said that legislators of the 60-member Assembly of the state will take oath on March 16 and 17 and  he will conduct the House till new Speaker and Deputy Speaker are elected.

He said that during the brief session, vote on account will be placed before the House as the Budget for 2023-24 could not be prepared due to the assembly elections.

It may be recalled here that after getting absolute majority in the March 2nd assembly election results, the  seventy-year-old BJP leader Dr Manik Saha was took oath as Chief Minister of Tripura for the second time on March 8th last. Eight more Ministers, including Ratan Lal Nath, Pranajit Singha Roy, Santana Chakma, Sushanta Chowdhury , Tinku Roy, Bikash Debbarma, Sudhunshu Das and Sukla Charan Noatia, were also sworn in by the Governor.

The BJP won 32 seats in the recent Assembly elections in Tripura, while its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura managed to secure one seat. Regional party Tipra Motha got 13 Assembly seats, while the CPI(M)-Congress combine bagged 14 seats.