TNI Bureau: As expected, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Legislature Party unanimously nominated Ranpur MLA Surama Padhy as their Speaker candidate. Surama filed the nomination and is all set to be elected unopposed as BJD did not field any candidate within the deadline. According to Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling, CM Mohan Majhi had talked to Ex CM Naveen Patnaik, who extended support to Surama Padhy’s candidature.

Surama filed the nomination for Speaker elections in the presence of CM Mohan Majhi, Deputy CMs KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida, Ministers and BJP MLAs.

Surama Padhy, a senior leader of BJP, was elected to Odisha Assembly in 2004 during the BJD-BJP coalition era. However, she lost in 2009, 2014 and 2019, although her losing margin was reduced each time. She defeated Satyanarayan Pradhan of BJD by 15,544 votes.

As Surama was not inducted into the Cabinet, it was almost certain that she would be the next Speaker of Odisha Assembly. The official announcement came today.