Jammu, March 18 (IANS): Kavinder Gupta, a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator, was on Wednesday elected as the speaker of the state legislative assembly.
After the budget session of the assembly started here on Wednesday, senior PDP leader and Education Minister Naeem Akhtar proposed the name of Kavinder Gupta for the post.
Gupta is an MLA from Gandhi Nagar constituency of Jammu district.
Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh seconded the proposal after which Gupta was unanimously elected.
Gupta replaces the Protem Speaker Muhammad Shafi of the regional National Conference.
He defeated senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla in the state polls in December last year.
After a fractured verdict in the assembly election, a PDP-BJP combine government assumed office in the state and members were sworn in on March 1 after protracted talks between the two parties.