The three-day Assembly session that concluded on Wednesday was an eye-opener and a learning experience for the 21 first-time MLAs.

Some of them said they would play proactive roles to ensure that the precious time of the House isn’t wasted in unnecessary discussions, which have nothing to do with the development of the state.

“I noticed that the Opposition disturbed the House for almost an hour though the issue could have been sorted out in four to five minutes. The body language of some of the senior Opposition party legislators was not good and the level of discussion did not suggest they were experienced. However, there were many seniors like Nalin Soren, Stephen Marandi, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Haji Hussain Ansari, Babulal Marandi and Pradeep Yadav from whom I learnt how to behave inside the House,” said Garhwa MLA Mithilesh Thakur of the JMM.

First-time Congress MLA Deepika Pandey from Mahagama believes the same. “After the three-day session I realised there are people inside the House who forget to respect the sanctity of the Constitution after taking oath in the name of the Constitution. I got hurt when I heard a six-time legislator taking the name of Rahul Gandhi with disregard when the person is neither running the Congress nor the country. It’s a bad experience for me to hear from senior legislators of the Opposition using their experience to brand an honourable member of the House a terrorist (referring to Wednesday’s C.P. Singh and Irfan Ansari confrontation),” Pandey said.

First time BJP MLA Samri Lal from Kanke had a mixed experience. “I learnt how to speak to the point and how important it is to pay respect to the Speaker. On Wednesday, had a senior legislator of the ruling party respected the Speaker, the House proceedings would have been smooth. I learnt one should not use any such language which would hurt the sentiments of any member or any citizen of the state,” Lal said.