Kerala swearing-in ceremony: First session of 15th state assembly begins, swearing-in of new MLAs underway

The first session of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly commenced on Monday with all Covid-19 protocols in place.

The swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected 140 MLAs is underway at the Kerala Assembly.

Out of the 140 elected MLAs, 99 MLAs belong to the CPM-led LDF party and 41 MLAs belong to the Congress-led UDF party. The swearing-in ceremony commenced before protem Speaker of the Assembly, PTA Rahim.

Three days ago, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered an oath to the Kerala protem Speaker.

"Hon'ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath to Adv PTA Rahim, who was sworn in Protem Speaker of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly, at Kerala Raj Bhavan on 21 May 2021," a tweet by the Governor office said.

Today, Congress leader VD Satheesan will also take oath as the leader of the opposition in the Assembly. Satheesan, an MLA from Paravoor constituency in Ernakulam district, has been elected to Kerala Assembly five times in a row since 2001. He is also an advocate in the Kerala High Court.

Ramesh Chennithala, the former leader of opposition in the Kerala Assembly, extended his best wishes to Satheeshan.

Earlier on May 20, Pinarayi Vijayan was sworn in as Chief Minister by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan for a second term in office at a function in Thiruvananthapuram.

This is Vijayan's second consecutive term in office as the LDF won the polls again breaking a four-decade pattern of power shifting between it and the UDF alternately.

Notably, out of the 140 elected MLAs, 11 women MLAs will also be swearing-in before Pro-Tem Speaker PTA Rahim. 10 women MLAs are from the Left Democratic Alliance (LDF) party and one is from United Democratic Front (UDF) party.

The ceremony is taking place under tight Covid-19 restrictions. The lockdown in Kerala has been extended till May 30.

(ANI)

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