Passang Dorjee Sona Elected As 7th Assembly Speaker, Tesam Pongte As Deputy

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously elected senior BJP member Passang Dorjee Sona as the Speaker of the 7th Assembly while another BJP MLA Tesam Pongte was elected as his deputy.

Pro-tem speaker Phosum Khimhun who was on the chair, announced the name of Sona and Pongte as there was no other nominations filed for the posts.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and senior Congress legislator Ninong Ering escorted the newly-elected Speaker to his chair in the House.

Sona, who represented Mechuka Assembly constituency in Shi-Yomi district of the State since 2009, was re-elected from the seat this year.

A close aide of the Chief Minister, Sona was one of six MLAs along with Khandu to be suspended by the PPA for anti-party activities before joining the Saffron party in 2016. A law graduate, 47-year-old Sona was born to Pasang Wangchuk Sona who was also the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly during 1980-1985.

Sona did his graduation in Political Science from Hindu College under Delhi University in 1992. He passed his class XII from R K Mission School at Aalo in West Siang district in 1989 and also passed his class X from the same school in 1987. Khandu while congratulating Sona for being elevated to the coveted post said that the tourism industry in the state flourished under Sona when he was the parliamentary secretary of the department.

Exuding confidence that Sona would lead the House as per the expectations of the newly-elected members, Khandu said that all previous loopholes would be corrected by the new Speaker.

The Chief Minister also assured the Speaker all possible help from the government in strengthening the temple of democracy. Sona while extending his gratefulness to the members assured to maintain impartiality while discharging his duties. “I am humbled with the great responsibility and I assure that each member will get equal opportunity irrespective of party affiliations,” Sona said and exhorted the members to keep the sanctity of the House intact.

Pongte was elected from Changlang North Assembly constituency in 2014 as a BJP candidate and re-elected from the same constituency this year as a BJP member to the Seventh Legislative Assembly of the state. Born to Khodong Pongte, Tesam is an arts graduate.

Also read: Arunachal news