VIDEO | Newly-Elected Assam deputy speaker Kripanath Mallah falls off an elephant, laughs the incident off

In an unforeseen and bizarre incident, BJP MLA and newly-elected deputy speaker of Assam assembly Kripanath Mallah on Sunday fell from an elephant. Mallah is unhurt in the incident. The incident happened during a welcome procession, held in Mallah’s own constituency in Karimganj district, to honour his appointment as the deputy speaker of the state assembly.

In a video shared by news agency ANI, Kripanath Mallah can be seen sitting atop the decked up elephant, surrounded by supporters. Suddenly the elephant starts to run, leaving the deputy speaker off-balance and thereby leading to the fall. Mallah can be seen clinging to the elephant, trying to save himself from falling down, however, fails to keep up after a few seconds and slid down off of the animal.

READ | National Approval Ratings: BJP, Congress To Slightly Improve, AIUDF To Go Down To A Mere 1 Seat In Assam

Fortunately, Mallah fell over a patch of grass, alongside the road, which blunted the impact of the fall. In the video, men can be seen rushing to help Mallah, immediately after he fell down from the elephant. Mallah then can be seen assuring that he was fine, laughing the incident off while answering the queries of men thronging him.

The BJP MLA from Ratabari constituency Kripanath Mallah was elected the deputy speaker of Assam assembly on September 26. His appointment was announced by Assembly speaker Hitendra Goswami. Mallah’s appointment as the deputy speaker came after the post fell vacant following the resignation of BJP MLA Dilip Paul.

READ | Assam Government Releases Final Draft List Of National Register Of Citizens In The State, 40 Lakh Names Struck Off From The List

Dilip Paul’s resignation was accepted in August, around three months after he tendered his resignation. The two-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Silchar submitted his resignation letter to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal as he was allegedly feeling uncomfortable in his post. Paul’s decision allegedly came after the Assam government released the final draft of Assam NRC. He had resigned from his post on May 8,2018.

The Assam government had released the second and final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30.  As per the exercise, which was directly monitored by the Supreme Court, those who have entered Assam after March 24, 1971, will be viewed as illegal immigrants.

2,89, 83,677 persons were found eligible out of 3,29,91,384 applicants in the second draft of the NRC while names of 4,007,707 people were not included in the final Draft NRC.