Dharmshala: Brij Bihari Lal Butail was elected new Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly unanimously here today, on the second day of winter session at Tapovan, with a voice vote.
As the house was commenced pro-term speaker Mansa Ram announced that three sets of nominations had been received for election of the Speaker. 
After the three movers of nominations, Virbhadra Singh, oppostion leader PK Dhumal and congress leader Vidya Stokes read their resolutions on directions from the chair the house unanimously adopted them to elect Butail as the new Speaker of the house.
After the election, leader of the house Virbhadra Singh and leader of the opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal escorted Butail to the chair of the Speaker.
Butail born in 1941 is a five time legislator of the assembly; first elected in 1985, he was again elected in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2012. In 2003 he was the revenue minister.
Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur thanked AICC chairpersons Sonia Gandhi for helping the Congress Legislature Party in selecting the speaker and welcomed the move of chief minister Virbhadra Singh proposing the name of Butail for speaker.
Rising on the chair, Butail humbly thanked the house for electing him speaker. He said that it was an honour for him to don the Speakers position by being elected by both the ruling and opposition party’s in the house.
Mohan Verma is a seasoned journalist, with more than a decade of experience of active reporting for news agencies and fast paced online media.
