Shankar Chaudhary elected unopposed as Speaker of Gujarat Assembly

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Shankar Chaudhary was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the Speaker of the newly-formed Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

Besides, senior BJP MLA Jetha Bharwad was elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker during the first session of the 15th state Assembly in Gandhinagar.

The opposition Congress as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supported the nominations of ruling party legislators Chaudhary and Bharwad. While Chaudhary's name was proposed by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Bharwad's name was proposed by state Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai.

Chaudhary, who represents the Tharad seat in Banaskantha district, had served as a minister in the Gujarat governments led by Anandiben Patel and Vijay Rupani between 2014 and 2017. He had lost the 2017 Assembly election from Vav seat.

Bharwad, a six-time MLA from Shehra Assembly seat of Panchmahal district, had served as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly for a year between 2021 and 2022 in the 14th Assembly.

Bharwad is the chairman of the Panchmahal Dairy, while Chaudhary heads the Banas Dairy. Earlier on Monday, all the newly-elected MLAs took the oath of office.

In the just-concluded Assembly elections, the BJP retained power by winning 156 out of the total 182 Assembly seats in the state. The Congress had only 17 seats, the AAP got five seats, while three seats went to independents and one seat to the Samajwadi Party.

Bhupendra Patel was sworn in as chief minister on December 12 along with 16 ministers