JMM nominee Shashank Sekhar Bhokta set to become Jharkhand speaker unopposed

RANCHI: JMM MLA Shashank Sekhar Bhokta is set to be elected unopposed as Speaker of Jharkhand Assembly as he was the only candidate to file nomination papers on the last day today.


"Shashank Sekhar Bhokta has filed nomination papers in four sets. He is the only candidate to have filed papers before the deadline today. There is no other candidate," Secretary of the Assembly Secretariat Sushil Kumar Singh said here.

Among the prominent proposers of the MLA from Sarath constituency, were Chief Minister Hemant Soren and minister and Congress leader Rajendra Pratap Singh.

Bhokta's nomination came after C P Singh resigned from the post of Speaker on July 19 soon after the Hemant Soren-led government won the trust vote.

JMM MLA Simon Marandi will conduct the House tomorrow as Protem Speaker till the formal announcement of the result of the election to the Speaker's post.

"We don't have numbers to win. We would have pondered over it if any other Opposition MLA came forward to contest. But nobody had come," Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantric) Legislature Party Leader Pradip Yadav said when asked why the Opposition shied away from the contest.

He, however, said as per convention the Speaker's post has been unanimous.