Bhubaneswar: With the elected leaders taking oath as members of the 16th Odisha Assembly during the two-day special session that concluded on Friday, here are some facts and figures about the new Assembly:
—The 16th Odisha Assembly has 112 BJD members, 23 BJP members, 9 Congress members, a CPM and an Independent member.
—Out of 146 members, 60 have been elected for the first time, 31 for the second time, 21 for the third time, 12 for the fourth time, 11 for the fifth time, 7 for the sixth time and 4 for the seventh time. The 15th Odisha Assembly had 56 leaders who were elected for the first time. Of the 56 members, 43 were from the BJD, 8 from the Congress, 3 from the BJP and 2 Independents.
—The members who have been elected for the seventh time are Ranendra Pratap Swain-BJD (Athagarh), Pradeep Maharathy-BJD (Pipili), Surya Narayan Patro-BJD (Digapahandi) and Suresh Routray-Congress (Jatani).
—The members who have been elected for the sixth time are Prafulla Samal-BJD (Bhandaripokhari), Pramila Mallick-BJD (Binjharpur), Amar Prasad Satpathy-BJD (Badachana), Debi Prasad Mishra-BJD (Badamba), Bishnu Charan Das-BJD (Tirtol), Bikram Keshari Arukha-BJD (Bhanjanagar) and Usha Devi-BJD (Chikiti).
—The members who have been elected for the fifth time are Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha-BJD (Padampur), Badri Narayan Patra-BJD (Ghasipura), Nrushingha Charan Sahu-BJD (Parjanga), Padmanabh Behera-BJD (Biramaharajpur), Niranjan Pujari-BJD (Sonepur), Narasingha Mishra-Congress (Balangir) Bhupinder Singh-BJD (Narla), Pradip Amat-BJD (Boudh), Pratap Jena-BJD (Mahanga) and Arabainda Dhali-BJD (Jayadev).
—The seniormost member of the 16th Assembly is Suresh Routray, who has won from his home constituency in 1977, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000. The veteran leader made a comeback after 19 years by defeating his rival BJD candidate Bibhuti Balabantray. Next to Routray, Bhupinder Singh and Pradeep Mahararthy had made their debut in the State Assembly in 1980 and 1985 respectively.
