Surya Patro To Be Speaker, Pramila Mallick Govt Chief Whip

Bhubaneswar: Surya Narayan Patro will become the new Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly while another senior BJD legislator Pramila Mallick is tipped to become the next Government Chief Whip, BJD sources said on Tuesday.

Patro, a BJD veteran, has served as minister in the Biju Patnak government in the early 1990s and also in different ministries headed by Naveen Patnaik. In the outgoing government, Patro was minister for food supplies and consumer welfare.

A seven-time MLA, Patro, who has retained Digapahandi assembly seat in Ganjam district, confirmed to Odisha Bytes that BJD president Naveen Patnaik had called him and conveyed his desire that he don the Speaker’s mantle. “I have been minister for long (22 years). This will be a new responsibility and new experience,” he told OB.

BJD sources said the party top brass zeroed in on Patro for the Speaker’s job as he has nearly three decades of legislative experience and there is a need to have a senior person to skilfully deal with Assembly matters.

A five-time MLA from Binjharpur in Jajpur district, Mallick had earlier served as minister in the Naveen Patnaik dispensation but forced to quit in February, 2011, in the wake of the multi-crore dal scam.

Sources also indicated that the leadership did not want to make Patro and Mallick ministers but considering their seniority and successive electoral success could not ignore their claim. Hence, both have been ‘accommodated’ as Speaker and Government Chief Whip.