Parmar to be new speaker of Himachal assembly

Himachal Pradesh minister Vipin Parmar will be the new Speaker of the assembly, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur announced on Monday.

The speaker's post is lying vacant since January 16 when then-Speaker Rajeev Bindal submitted his resignation to Deputy Speaker Hans Raj. Two days later, Bindal was elected as the state Bharatiya Janata Party president.

A day before the beginning of the budget session of the assembly, the chief minister told the media that Health and Family Welfare Minister Parmar would file his nomination papers for the Speaker's post after Governor Bandaru Dattatreya's address in the assembly on Tuesday.

Parmar will be formally declared elected as the Speaker on Wednesday, he added.

Thakur said he had talked with BJP president J P Nadda in this regard. Nadda finalised that the MLA from Sulah constituency in Kangra district would be the new Speaker.

Meanwhile, Thakur said talks regarding cabinet expansion had also been held with Nadda.