Bhubaneswar, June 19 (UNI) BJP MLA from Ranapur and former minister Surama Padhy filed her nomination for the Speaker post of the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
Surama filed her nomination after the BJP legislature party meeting held here unanimously nominated her name as the party candidate for the Speaker post.
Accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Deputy Chief Ministers K V Singh Deo and Pravati Parida, besides the council of ministers, Surama Padhi filed her nomination before the Odisha Assembly secretary, Dasarathi Satpathy.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling were the proposers in the nomination paper filed by Surama Padhy.
It was a foregone conclusion that Surama Padhi will be the next Speaker of the Odisha Assembly, as no other candidate from other political parties had filed nomination papers for the post until 12 PM on Wednesday, the deadline for the filing of nominations for the Speaker post.
The election to the Speaker post was scheduled to be held on June 20 but since no other nomination paper for the post was filed by the deadline, Surama Padhy will be declared uncontested as Speaker of the Assembly.
Surama Padhy, a Master degree holder in Home Science and also Law graduate, joined the BJP in 1988 and served as the State BJP Mahila Morcha President from 1998 to 2000. She subsequently became the BJP Mahila Morcha National President for two years, from 2002.
She was first elected to the Odisha legislative assembly from the Ranapur Assembly seat in the 2004 elections and served as the minister of state for cooperation from May 18, 2004 to March 9, 2009 in the BJD-BJP coalition government headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
