Kerala’s 16th Assembly convenes as newly elected MLAs take oath

The 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly commenced with Pro-tem Speaker G Sudhakaran administering oaths to newly elected MLAs. Several legislators chose solemn affirmation over religious oath-taking, while members also took oath in multiple languages including Malayalam, Tamil, English and Kannada-Malayalam

Thiruvananthapuram: Pro-tem Speaker G Sudhakaran on Thursday administered the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly. The swearing-in, which commenced at 9 am, was carried out in alphabetical order, starting with IUML MLA V E Abdul Gafoor who won from the Kalamassery assembly seat, and concluded at 12.30 pm.

Chief Minister V D Satheesan was the 105th MLA to be sworn in, while Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan was 133rd legislator to take the oath.

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The last person to be sworn-in was Xavier Chitilappilly, the CPI(M) MLA elected from the Wadakkanchery assembly constituency. During the swearing-in, 42 MLAs chose to “solemnly affirm” instead of taking the oath in the name of God.

Those who chose to solemnly affirm included all the CPI(M) and CPI MLAs, Congress legislators V T Balram and Sumesh Achuthan, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leaders Shibu Baby John and Vishnu Mohan and Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMP) MLA K K Rema. Besides them, T K Govindan and V Kunhikrishnan — both former CPI(M) leaders who left the party and contested as UDF backed independent candidates — and Communist Marxist Party Kerala State Committee (CMP KSC) legislator C P John also chose to solemnly affirm.

The swearing-in also witnessed the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MLA from Manjeshwar assembly seat, A K M Ashraf, take the oath in the regional language — a mix of Kannada and Malayalam — while Congress legislator F Raja from Devikulam constituency took oath in Tamil.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, K Muraleedharan and Sunny Joseph, party leaders Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Sandeep Varier, RSP MLA John, IUML legislator Fyzal Babu and UDF partner Kerala Democratic Party MLA Mani C Kappen took oath in English. Varier held up a book of the Constitution while taking oath and ended it with ‘jai hind’ and ‘jai sita ram’.

While RSP leaders John and Mohan solemnly affirmed, their party colleague Ullas Kovur took oath in the name of God. The BJP MLAs — Rajeev Chandrasekhar, B B Gopakumar and V Muraleedharan also took oath in the name of God.

The House will reconvene on Friday morning to elect the Speaker of the Assembly. While the Congress has nominated Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan for the position, the BJP has recommended Gopakumar for it, while the LDF has not suggested any names.