Odisha Assembly Speaker Election On Sept 21; Monsoon Session From Sept 22

Bhubaneswar: The election to Speaker post will be held on September 21 and the monsoon session of Odisha Assembly commence the following day (September 22), official sources said on Thursday.

The Speaker post has been lying vacant since Bikram Keshari Arukha along with two ministers – Samir Ranjan Dash (School and Mass Education) and Srikant Sahu (Labour) – resigned from their respective positions on May 12 this year. Arukha was assigned the Finance portfolio when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expanded his cabinet later on May 23.

The sources further said that the date for filing of nomination papers for the election to the Speaker post is September 18. While the monsoon session will continue till October 4, a supplementary budget will be tabled in the Assembly on October 3.

Amid the buzz over early Assembly polls in November/December, it was earlier reported that the state Assembly is likely to be convened for the one last time for four to five days on September 26 to place the supplementary budget of around Rs 25,000 crore.