Ranjeet Kumar Dass was on Thursday (May 21, 2026) elected Speaker of the Assam Assembly for a second term, a first in the State.

The newly elected 126-member House also set a precedent on the inaugural day of its first session by allowing MLAs belonging to the ethnic communities to take the oath in their mother tongues. This followed a formal request from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to honour the State’s diverse linguistic heritage.

The four-day session opened with Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya appointing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Chandra Mohan Patowary, the senior-most member of the House, as the Pro-tem Speaker.

Mr. Patowary, who represents the Tihu Assembly seat, administered the oath to the Chief Minister and four Cabinet Ministers — Atul Bora of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Rameswar Teli and Ajanta Neog of the BJP, and Charan Boro of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).

The other MLAs took oath in Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, English, Sanskrit, and several ethnic tongues, including Karbi, Rabha and Rajbongshi.

“This was the first time that newly elected MLAs took oath in languages of their choice, beyond the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India,” the Chief Minister told the House.

Later, Mr. Dass, who represents the Bhowanipur-Sorbhog constituency, was unanimously elected as the Speaker. He had earlier served as the Speaker from June 2016 to January 2017.

A former journalist and teacher, Mr. Dass served as an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer before joining politics in 2005.

Uniform Civil Code

Mr. Acharya, the Governor, is scheduled to address the Assembly on Friday (May 22, 2026). Legislation related to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, approved by the Cabinet a week ago, is expected to be tabled on May 26, the final day of the session.

“We will pass the Uniform Civil Code Bill during this Assembly session. It was a [pre-election] commitment that we intend to fulfil,” the Chief Minister told journalists on Wednesday (May 20), adding that the Cabinet would be expanded in June.