Sudurpaschim Provincial Assembly lawmakers have taken the oath of office and secrecy on Friday.

Man Bahadur Rawal, the senior-most lawmaker in the Assembly, administered the oath to 52 lawmakers in the hall of the Assembly in Dhangadhi, the interim provincial capital, at 1 pm. Among them, six took the oath in their mother tongue.

Rawal was administered his oath by Deva Raj Joshi, the Head of Sudurpaschim Province, earlier on the same day.

In the 53-member assembly, 32 were elected through First-Past-The-Post and 21 through the proportional ballot. The newly-elected lawmakers represent six parties while one is an independent candidate in the Assembly.

Nepali Congress with 19 seats is the largest party in the Assembly. Similarly, CPN (Maoist Centre) is the second largest party with 11 seats and CPN-UML stands third with 10 seats.

Nagarik Unmukti Party is the fourth party with seven seats followed by the CPN (Unified Socialist) with four seats. Rastriya Prajatantra Party has secured one seat through the proportional ballot.

Apart from Nagarik Unmukti Party, which has elected Rameshwar Chaudhary, other parties are yet to elect their leader of the provincial assembly party. After the formation of a new coalition in the federal government, the Maoist Centre, Nagarik Unmukti Party and the UML stake claims for the provincial government.