Ranchi: JMM legislator Rabindra Nath Mahato was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the Speaker of the sixth Jharkhand assembly.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren proposed Mahato’s name for the post and the proposal was seconded by JMM MLA Mathura Prasad Mahato during the second of the four-day session of the assembly.

Soren congratulated Rabindra Nath Mahato on behalf of the ruling alliance for being elected as the Speaker of the assembly for the second consecutive term.

Rabindra Nath Mahato retained the Nala assembly seat on a JMM ticket after he defeated BJP’s Madhav Chandra Mahato by a margin of 10,483 votes in the recent assembly elections.

The JMM leader took oath as a member of the Jharkhand assembly along with other legislators on Monday.

The JMM-led alliance on November 23 stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed 24.