PUDUCHERRY: All India NR Congress (AINRC) MLA K Lakshminarayanan was sworn in as the pro tem speaker of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at a low-key function at Raj Nivas in the presence of CM N Rangasamy and chief secretary Ashwani Kumar.
Shortly after assuming charge, Lakshminarayanan commenced administering the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs in the chamber of the Speaker at the Legislative Assembly .
The first one to take oath was Chief minister N Rangasamy.
Lakshminarayanan, who has been a minister earlier, for the first time has taken up the key position of a pro tem speaker by being one of the two senior most member of the Assembly along with former Minister A Namassivayam.
Lakshminarayanan was elected for the fifth time to the legislative from Raj Bhavan and erstwhile Cassicade (which was merged with Raj Bhavan following delimitation in 2006) .
Beginning his political career in NSUI , as a student leader in 1980, he went on to become the General Secretary of state youth Congress committee and President of INTUC.
Contesting for the first time in 2001, he won the Cassicade seat for the first time on Puducherry Makkal Congress ticket and then became Minister for Education, Tourism after the party merged with Congress. Again in 2006, he also won from the same constituency on Munnetra Congress ticket.
The party subsequently merged with Congress. In 2011 and 2016, he won from Raj Bhavan constituency and joined the AINRC just before the polls in 2021 and won from the same seat.