DEHRADUN: Senior BJP MLA Banshidhar Bhagat was on Monday appointed as the protem speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly.
A notification on Bhagat's appointment as the protem speaker was issued by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh.
A seven-time MLA, Bhagat won from the Kaladhungi seat in the just concluded state polls. He will function as the protem speaker until a speaker is elected. The newly elected members of the state Assembly will be sworn in by Bhagat.
Bhagat became an MLA for the first time in 1991 when he was elected from Nainital in undivided Uttar Pradesh. He was elected from Nainital again in 1993 and 1996, and became a state minister. He was also a minister in the interim Uttarakhand government in 2000.
In 2007, Bhagat was elected to the Uttarakhand Assembly from Haldwani. He has been the MLA from Kaladhungi since 2012.