Agartala, March 24: BJP MLA Biswabandhu Sen was elected as the Speaker of the 60-member Tripura Legislative Assembly on Friday, after TIPRA Motha abstained from voting.

Sen secured 32 votes and defeated Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy, who got only 14 votes of the total 27 opposition MLAs.

The main opposition TIPRA Motha Party abstained from voting and under the leadership of Animesh Debbarma all the Motha walked out of the House on the pretext of protest for not providing proper sitting arrangements to its 13 MLAs.

The ruling BJP has 31 members and its ally, IPFT, has one MLA in the assembly while opposition parties have 27 members comprising 13 of Motha, 11 of CPM and three of Congress.

Two candidates had contested for Speaker’s post, voting for which started at around 11 AM on Friday, the first day of the assembly session after the new government was elected earlier this month.

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