140 MLAs sworn-in on first day of 14th Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other newly elected members of the 14th Kerala Assembly Thursday took oath as legislators in the House.

Protem Speaker S Sharma of CPI-M administered the oath to the members.

The new members were sworn in as per the alphabetical order of their names and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took oath as the 137th member in the 140-member House.

All his cabinet colleagues, including E P Jayarajan (Industries), T M Thomas Issac (Finance), E Chandrasekharan (Revenue), Mercykutty Amma (Fisheries), also took oath.

Congress members, including former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, and IUML leader and former minister P K Kunhalikutty were among the opposition members who took the oath.

For Chandy, this is the 11th consecutive stint as MLA from his home constituency Puthupally.

Former finance minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani, who won from Pala constituency in Kottayam district, scripted history taking oath as an MLA for the 13th time.

Senior BJP leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal became the first MLA of the saffron party to be sworn in the state Assembly.

BJP State President Kummanom Rajasekharan watched the oath taking ceremony from the VIP gallery of the House. Earlier, Rajagopal was given a reception by party workers at the Martyrs colum in the city.

The new Speaker of the Assembly would be elected tomorrow.

CPI-M led LDF has 91 members in the House while Congress led Opposition 47. Besides the lone BJP member, the House also has an independent P V George.
The LDF has nominated P Sriramakrishnan, CPI-M MLA from Ponani, to the post of Speaker and V Sasi of CPI, who won from Chirayinkeezhu, to the post of Deputy Speaker and they are set to be elected given the strength of the ruling front.