Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and the legislator from Digapahandi Assembly Constituency Surjya Narayan Patro has been elected as the Speaker of 16th Odisha Legislative Assembly here Saturday.
He was elected unanimously. The process for electing him as the Speaker began with a notice being issued by the secretary of the state Assembly.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik proposed Patro’s name for the Speaker post, which was supported by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh and other members of the Assembly cutting across party lines.
Later, the Pro-tem Speaker Amar Prasad Satpathy invited Patro to take the charge as the Speaker.
With this appointment, he will preside over the Assembly sessions in the House.
Given the brute majority of BJD in the House, the election to the post of Speaker was merely a formality. Traditionally, a member from the ruling party almost always adorns the Speaker post.
The BJP has won only 23 Assembly seats followed by nine seats by Congress in the recently concluded Odisha elections 2019 that denied them a chance in the race for the post.
It may be mentioned here that a fresh session of the new Assembly will begin June 18 under Patra.