PATNA: The inaugural session of the 17th Bihar Assembly commenced on Monday with 198 members being administered the oath of office by Protem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Eight ministers were among those who were administered the oath at a ceremony conducted at the central hall of the legislature building with strict adherence to COVID-19 norms, Assembly Secretary Raj Kumar Singh told PTI.
According to the schedule read out by Manjhi, the newly elected 243 members were to be sworn in on the first two days of the session, on November 23 and 24.
Members representing constituency numbers 1 to 100 would be administerd oath during the first half of Monday, from 11 am to 1 pm, and those representing constituency numbers 101 to 200, including RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, during the second half, from 2 pm to 4 pm.
The rest will be administered the oath of office on Tuesday, he said.
Deputy chief ministers and BJP members Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were the first ones to be sworn in.
Ministers who were administered oath included Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Sheela Kumari, Amarendra Pratap Singh, Rampreet Paswan, Ram Surat Kumar.
Jivesh Kumar was not present in the House when his name was called out.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is a member of legislative council, was present during the ceremony.
Mewalal Chaudhury, whose appointment to the post of a minister had triggered controversy on account of a corruption taint following which he tendered his resignation on November 19, also took oath as an MLA.
Prominent among those who took oath on the first day included senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav, RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav, BJP MLAs Arun Kumar Sinha, Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, JD(U) member and former DGP (Home Guards and Fire Services) Sunil Kumar, RJD members Awadh Bihari Choudhary and Lalit Kumar Yadav.
Prominent members who took oath in Maithili included BJP members Vinod Narayan Jha, Nitish Mishra, Haribhushan Thakur, RJD MLA Samir Kumar Mahaseth, JD(U) member Sudhanshu Shekhar, while RJD member from Sheohar Chetan Anand, son of don-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh, another RJD member Yusuf Salahuddin, and CPI(ML) MLA Mahboob Alam stuck to English.
Congress member from Kadwa Shakeel Ahmad Khan, BJP member from Sitamarhi Mithilesh Kumar, and JD(U) MLA Ratnesh Sada took oath in Sanskrit.
AIMIM members Shahnawaz and Akhtarul Iman were administered oath in Urdu but a controversy erupted when Iman insisted that the draft for the oath in Urdu should have "Bharat", as it is in the Constitution, instead of "Hindustan".
The chair, however, permitted him to use "Bharat".