Surama files nomination for Odisha Assembly Speaker

Bhubaneswar : Senior BJP leader and Ranpur MLA Surama Padhy on Wednesday filed her nomination paper for the election to the post of Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly.

Accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and deputy chief ministers K V Singh Deo and Prabhati Parida, Padhy filed her nomination paper before Odisha Legislative Assembly Secretary Dasarathi Satpathy. Earlier, the BJP Legislature Party had unanimously decided on Padhy’s name for the post of Speaker.

Odisha Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling told reporters that the Chief Minister has requested BJD president Naveen Patnaik to support Padhy’s candidature. Padhy (63) is possibly the lone candidate in the fray for the Speaker election as the Opposition BJD has not fielded any candidate against her. She is likely to be declared as the Speaker of the 17th OLA on Thursday.

Padhy will become the second woman Speaker of the State after Pramila Mallik of the BJD. Mallik was the Speaker in the 16th Odisha Legislative Assembly. Padhy was first elected to the Odisha Assembly from Ranpur seat in Nayagarh district on a BJP ticket in 2004. She had also served as a Minister of State with Independent charge in the Cooperation department in the BJD-BJP coalition government in Odisha from 2004 to 2009.

This time, the BJP has formed government of its own in Odisha after the saffron party won 78 seats in the 147 member in Odisha Assembly. The BJD has 51 MLAs, Congress 14, CPI(M) one and independents 3. Though BJP has 78 members, it has secured support of three independent MLAs taking the saffron party’s strength to 81 in the 147 member Odisha Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, pro tem Speaker Ranendra Pratap Swain administered the oath to the remaining members of the House on Wednesday. As many as 102 newly elected MLAs had taken oath on Tuesday. All the 147 newly elected MLAs were scheduled to take oath on June 18 and 19.