Oraon unanimous choice for speaker

RANCHI: Bharatiya Janata Party's Sisai MLA Dinesh Oraon is set to be the speaker in the fourth assembly. Oraon filed his nomination on Day 1 of the four-day assembly session on Tuesday after his name was proposed unanimously by the ruling parties and the opposition, including Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
"Oraon is the only person to have filed nomination in five sets that were proposed by ruling and opposition parties, including JMM," officials of the assembly secretariat said.The official announcement of the unopposed election will be made on Wednesday.
Chief minister Raghubar Das and his predecessor Hemant Soren, who accompanied Oraon when he filed his nomination, congratulated him for his unanimous selection.
The inaugural session of the fourth assembly was a brief affair that lasted close to two hours. Protem speaker Stephen Marandi chaired the proceedings and administered the oath-taking ceremony of MLAs. Proceedings were adjourned immediately for Wednesday.
The assembly building woke up to tight security as heavy deployments were made since morning. Top cops, including DGP Rajiv Kumar, Ranchi SSP Prabhat Kumar and city SP Anup Birthare took charge and the vehicles of MLAs were checked thoroughly before being allowed in.
However, the first day witnessed less attendance with several veteran leaders giving the oath-taking ceremony a miss.
JMM's Bishunpur MLA Chamra Linda and BJP's Baghmara candidate Dullu Mahto skipped the first day while Enos Ekka, the Jharkhand Party MLA from Kolebira who is behind bars, also missed the proceedings. Former CM Soren arrived at last with an hour after proceedings started.
Chief secretary Sajal Chakraborty welcomed Das with a bouquet at the portico of the buliding. Since its inception in 2000, the assembly saw a majority government for the first time that rode on a huge mandate to sweep assembly polls in December.
While the chief minister chose to stay away from the media, newly elected MLAs showed no apprehension in talking to mediapersons or the staff at the assembly secretariat.