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P. Sreeramakrishnan (CPI-M) was elected as Speaker of the Assembly on Friday.

He won 92 votes against 46 votes polled by V. P. Sajeendran (Congress). The ruling Left Democratic Front received two votes from the Opposition (The LDF has a strength of 91 in the Assembly and protem voter did not vote). One vote was declared invalid. (updated).

The newly-elected representatives of people took oaths to become members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

The representatives were called in to take oath in the alphabetical order before protem Speaker S. Sarma who presided over the first meeting of the 14^th Assembly.

All the elected representatives excluding the protem Speaker took oath on Thursday (Mr. Sarma took oath before the Governor earlier).  Prominent among them were Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala, veteran CPI (M) leader and the eldest member of the Assembly V. S. Achuthanandan and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

Kerala Blasters Football Club will be setting up a residential football academy in Kerala to train young talents in football, Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan and owner of Kerala Blasters Sachin Tendulkar announced here on Wednesday.

Mr. Tendulkar said the academy would produce about a hundred top class footballers.  Kerala Blasters would be turned into vibrant team. It would have four co-owners.

The Polit Bureau of CPI (M) has suggested that veteran leader V. S. Achuthanandan should be given a position with Cabinet rank.

Mr. Achuthanandan was the Opposition Leader with Cabinet rank till the new government took over. The new position will enable him to have the same rank with accompanying facilities including official residence and personal staff.

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarai  Vijayan said in Delhi on Saturday that the Mullaperiyar issue should be solved through discussions.