Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and MLA Digapahandi, Surjya Narayan Patro has been elected as the Speaker of Odisha Assembly unanimously today.
As soon as the floor starts, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has moved a proposal from in favour of Digapahandi MLA Surjya Narayan Patro for the post of Odisha Assembly Speaker and all the menbers of the floor have supported the move.
The 16th Odisha Assembly has 112 BJD members, 23 BJP members, 9 Congress members, a CPM and an Independent member. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Arukha Supported CMs Proposal.
Surya Narayan Patro, a BJD heavyweight from Ganjam distritc and former minister has elected seven times to the Assembly.
He is the fifth leader from Ganjam to have elected for this prestigious constitutional post in the Assembly.
The 71-year-old leader has been elected to the Assembly seven times in a row. Patro has become the 22nd Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly.
Patro was first elected to Assembly 1990 from Mohana constituency of Gajapati district. He contested from Digapahandi after Mohana was reserved for ST.
Patro was elected to the assembly from Digapahandi in the in the recently concluded polls. He defeated his nearest rival — BJP’s Pinky Pradhan — by a margin of over 40,000 vote.
Since 1990, the veteran BJD leader has held different ministerial portfolios in Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik’s Cabinet, including fisheries, animal resources development, energy, science and technology, environment, tourism, information and technology, revenue and disaster management, food and civil supplies and consumer welfare.