Governor Acharya Devvrat on Tuesday appointed BJP MLA from Bharuch Dushyant Patel to perform the duties of the office of the Speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly till the office is vacant. The Secretariat of the Assembly issued a notification in this regard. Patel, a Patidar, is a senior BJP MLA who has been on the panel of the Speaker to oversee the house proceedings in the absence of previous full-time Speaker Rajendra Trivedi. Trivedi had resigned from the Speaker’s post last week and then was inducted in the cabinet of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. Following Trivedi’s resignation, Bhuj MLA Nimaben Acharya was appointed the Protem Speaker. On Monday, Acharya resigned as the Protem Speaker leaving the office of Speaker vacant. A BJP party source said that now Dushyant Patel will perform the duties of the Speaker’s office till a full-time regular Speaker is elected. “He (Dushyant Patel) will process the election of new Speaker which is likely to be Nimaben Acharya on September 27 when the Assembly meets for a two-day monsoon session,” the source said. Meanwhile, BJP Tuesday appointed its Fatepura MLA Ramesh Katara as party’s whip in the Assembly replacing Jalalpore MLA R C Patel. Katara is a tribal whereas, Patel is from Koli community.
