Agartala, March 16 (TIWN / IANS) Former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has been elected leader of the CPI-M's 16-member Legislature Party, which will enable him to become the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, party sources said on Thursday.

Former Health Minister Badal Choudhury was elected his deputy, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Haripada Das said.

Das said newly elected CPI-M MLAs on Wednesday night also chose former Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty as the Chief Whip and Pravhat Choudhury as Deputy Chief Whip.

In the February 18 assembly polls, the CPI-M got 16 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, together won 44 seats. The BJP alone got 36 seats.

All MLAs, except Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma, on Thursday took oath as members of the Tripura Assembly.

Pro Tem Speaker Ratan Chakraborty administered the oath to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, his ministerial colleagues and other newly elected MLAs.

According to Assembly Secretary Bamdeb Majumder, Debbarma, who on Thursday won the Charilam seat by 25,550 votes, would take oath on Friday.

The first session of the new Tripura Assembly would be held on March 23.