Provincial Assembly members took the oath of office in all the seven provinces on Sunday.

The respective governor administered the oath to the senior-most Provincial Assembly member, who in turn swore in the remaining members of the provincial parliament. The senior member will act as the Speaker until the Provincial Assembly elects one.

The Election Commission had submitted the lists of elected members to the seven governors soon after they took their oath from President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday.

Members having various ethnic and cultural backgrounds attended the event in traditional attires. Some members in provinces 2 and 7 took the oath in their own languages.

In Biratnagar, the swearing-in ceremony was held at the Birendra Sabha Griha. Governor Gobinda Bahadur Tumbahang administered the oath to Om Prakash Sarabagi, the senior-most member. The 73-year-old administered the oath to fellow members later. Among the 93 in total, 91 members attended the ceremony in Province 1. Two members, who arrived late, only signed their papers.

In Janakpur, Province 2 chief Ratneshwor Lal Kayastha had administered the oath to Laganlal Chaudhary, 77, before the senior-most member conducted the swearing-in ceremony at the Rajarshi Janak Sabha Griha.

Kayastha has scheduled the first session of the Provincial Assembly for February 4 at the Education Training Centre in Janakpur-12.

In Hetauda, Province 3 Governor Anuradha Koirala administered the oath to senior-most member Dormani Poudel, 72. All the 110 Provincial Assembly members were sworn in by Poudel later.

In Pokhara, senior-most provincial lawmaker Janak Lal Shrestha took the oath from Province 4 chief Baburam Kunwar. Shrestha, 67, repeated the process for other members at the Nadipur-based Municipal Development Training Centre.

According to Kaski Chief District Officer Taranath Adhikari, 59 members—36 elected under the first-past-the-post and 24 under the Proportional Representation categories—attended the swearing-in.

In Butwal, two Provincial Assembly members remained absent during the ceremony held in a hall of the Butwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Of the 87 members in Province 5 , Jalapa Bhusal of Arghakhanchi and Bindu Panta of Rupandehi were absent. Governor Umakanta Jha administered the oath of office and secrecy to oldest member Baladev Sharma Pokharel.

In Surkhet, the function was conducted by senior-most member of Province 6 Him Bahadur Shahi, 68, after Governor Durga Keshar Khanal had sworn him in.

Governor Khanal and 24 Provincial Assembly members had reached Surkhet on a chartered helicopter of the Nepal Army on Sunday morning. All the regular flights to the district were cancelled on Saturday. In Dhangadhi, Dibyashwori Shah, 74, administered the oath to 52 of the 53 Province 7 members. Tharu members took the oath in their own language though the given script was Nepali. The oath should have been written in Tharu, said member Birbhan Chaudhary.

(With inputs from our local correspondents)

Oath taken in 4 languages in Province 2

JANAKPUR: Assembly members in Province 2 took their oath in four different languages on Sunday. Of the 107 members in total, 47 took the oath in Maithili, 25 in Bhojpuri, 24 in Nepali and 11 in Hindi languages. After the ceremony, Dha-nusha CDO Dilip Kumar Chapagain urged the members to sign the oath scripted in Nepali even though they had picked their own languages to pronounce it, infuriating the lawmakers.

“We have the federal system in the country now. But the government has the same old mindset of a single language,” said member Jagat Yadav. (PR)

Manange absent

POKHARA: Rajiv Gurung aka Deepak Manange, the Provincial Assembly member from Manang B, did not take the oath on Sunday. Police are hunting for Gurung after the apex court upheld the verdict of the Patan Appellate Court in 2013—five-year jail for attempted murder. (PR)