UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 139 of 150

Correct — B, A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4. All four were chosen as Speakers of their Vidhan Sabhas in March 2022, after the February-March 2022 assembly elections, which is why a paper set on 12 June 2022 called them 'newly elected'. Ramesh Tawadkar, of the BJP and elected from Canacona, became Speaker of the GOA Legislative Assembly on 29 March 2022, so A pairs with 1. Kultar Singh Sandhwan — the paper prints 'Kultar Sandhwan' — of the Aam Aadmi Party and elected from Kotkapura, became the eighteenth Speaker of the PUNJAB Vidhan Sabha on 21 March 2022, so B pairs with 2. Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, printed here as 'T. Satyabrat', of the BJP and elected from Yaiskul, became Speaker of the MANIPUR Legislative Assembly on 24 March 2022, so C pairs with 3. Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, printed as 'Ritu Khandari', became Speaker of the UTTARAKHAND Vidhan Sabha on 26 March 2022 — the sixth Speaker of that assembly and its first woman Speaker, and a daughter of the former Chief Minister B. C. Khanduri — so D pairs with 4. The pairing therefore runs straight down the lists, A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4, which is option (b).

• (a)A-1, B-4, C-3, D-2 — The near miss, and the one worth understanding. It gets Tawadkar-Goa and Satyabrata-Manipur right and then swaps the remaining two, sending Kultar Sandhwan to Uttarakhand and Ritu Khanduri to Punjab. Both are in fact the other way round: Sandhwan is the Aam Aadmi Party Speaker of Punjab and Khanduri is Uttarakhand's first woman Speaker.
• (c)A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4 — This gets only Ritu Khanduri-Uttarakhand right and shifts the other three one place along: Tawadkar to Punjab, Sandhwan to Manipur and Satyabrata to Goa. Tawadkar is from Canacona in Goa and Satyabrata from Yaiskul in Manipur, so both of those pairings fail.
• (d)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1 — This holds only Sandhwan-Punjab and misplaces the other three, giving Manipur to Tawadkar, Uttarakhand to Satyabrata and Goa to Khanduri. Because it gets the Punjab pair right it survives a first glance, but Tawadkar's Goa link and Khanduri's Uttarakhand link both contradict it.

The Speaker of a Vidhan Sabha is the presiding officer of a State Legislative Assembly, elected by the members from among themselves under Article 178 of the Constitution. The office carries the conduct of the House, the decision on whether a Bill is a Money Bill, the casting vote in a tie, and the adjudication of disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule. Under Article 179 the Speaker vacates office on ceasing to be a member of the Assembly, may resign to the Deputy Speaker, and may be removed by a resolution of the Assembly passed by a majority of all its then members after fourteen days' notice; when the Assembly is dissolved the Speaker does not go at once but continues until immediately before the first meeting of the new Assembly. Because each new Assembly elects its Speaker within days of being constituted, a round of state elections produces a batch of new presiding officers at once — which is exactly the batch this question is drawn from.

Anchor this firmly to the exam date. The Assembly elections in Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh were held in February and March 2022; the five new Houses elected their Speakers in the second half of March 2022, roughly three months before this paper was set on 12 June 2022, and a candidate who had read the news of that month had all four pairs. The state left out of the list is Uttar Pradesh itself, whose new Speaker was Satish Mahana, elected on 29 March 2022 — a natural follow-up question for a UP commission and worth carrying alongside these four. One honest present-day note for a reader studying this years later: presiding officers change, and Goa's did — Ramesh Tawadkar held the chair from 29 March 2022 until 21 August 2025. The question asks about the position as it stood in mid-2022 and should be answered on that basis. In the exam itself, the fastest route is to find the one pair you are surest of and eliminate: Ritu Khanduri's Uttarakhand link, remembered through her father B. C. Khanduri, alone removes options (a) and (d), leaving (b) against (c), where Tawadkar's Goa link decides it.

• Ramesh Tawadkar (BJP, Canacona) became Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly on 29 March 2022 and held the office until 21 August 2025.
• Kultar Singh Sandhwan (Aam Aadmi Party, Kotkapura) became the eighteenth Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on 21 March 2022.
• Thokchom Satyabrata Singh (BJP, Yaiskul) became Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly on 24 March 2022.
• Ritu Khanduri Bhushan became Speaker of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha on 26 March 2022 — its sixth Speaker and its first woman Speaker, and a daughter of former Chief Minister B. C. Khanduri.
• In the same round, Uttar Pradesh elected Satish Mahana (BJP) as Speaker of its Vidhan Sabha on 29 March 2022 — not in this list, but the obvious companion fact for a UPPSC paper.
• The paper's spellings differ from the standard ones: 'Kultar Sandhwan' for Kultar Singh Sandhwan, 'T. Satyabrat' for Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, and 'Ritu Khandari' for Ritu Khanduri Bhushan.

• Answering from a later state of affairs — the question is fixed to the position in mid-2022, and presiding officers have changed since
• Being thrown by the paper's non-standard spellings ('T. Satyabrat', 'Ritu Khandari') and failing to recognise the person
• Assuming a UP commission's list must contain UP; Uttar Pradesh voted in the same round but its Speaker, Satish Mahana, is deliberately absent from this list

UPPSC reliably converts each election cycle into a match list of officeholders against states, drawn from the months immediately before the exam — Speakers, Chief Ministers, Governors. UPSC almost never asks who currently holds such a post and instead asks what the post can do, most often through the constitutional provisions governing tenure and removal. Prepare both sides: the current names for UPPSC, the Articles for UPSC.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Speaker of a State Legislative Assembly is elected by

  • (a)The Governor of the State
  • (b)The members of the Assembly from among themselves
  • (c)The Chief Minister with the Governor's approval
  • (d)The members of both Houses of the State Legislature jointly

  Answer(b) The members of the Assembly from among themselves — Article 178 requires the Assembly to choose two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker as soon as may be. The Governor has no role in the choice.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, elected Speaker of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha in 2022, is notable as

  • (a)The youngest Speaker of any State Assembly
  • (b)The first woman Speaker of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha
  • (c)The first Speaker to be elected unopposed in Uttarakhand
  • (d)The first Speaker of Uttarakhand to have been a Union Minister

  Answer(b) The first woman Speaker of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha — she took the chair on 26 March 2022 as the state's sixth Speaker and its first woman in the office.