Pramila Mallik, the first female speaker of Odisha, leaves her position as a minister in the state’s cabinet

Pramila Mallik, the minister of revenue and disaster management for the state of Odisha, is alleged to have left the Naveen Patnaik administration on Thursday.

Six-time MLA Malik sent the chief minister her letter of resignation, which was then sent to the governor for clearance, they said.

The Naveen Patnaik government now has 20 ministers, including the chief minister, as a result of Mallik’s departure.

Mallik is expected to submit her application for the position of Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, according to the sources.

Following the most recent Cabinet change, Bikram Keshari Arukha’s appointment as Finance Minister resulted in the vacancy of the position of Odisha Assembly Speaker.

Given that the BJD, which is in power, has 113 MLAs in the House of 147 members, Mallik is poised to take over as Speaker of the OLA. Nine of the 22 MLAs in the opposition BJP are from the Congress. In the OLA, Independent and CPI(M) each have one representative.

According to sources, neither the BJP nor the Congress may run a candidate for Speaker.

On September 22, at 9:30 am, the Assembly will convene for its monsoon session, and the Speaker will be chosen at that time. The meeting is expected to go until October 4. September 21 has been set aside for the submission of nominations for the position.

Previously, the nomination period ended on September 18 and the Speaker election was set for September 21. The election was moved to September 22 and the deadline for submitting nominations was moved to September 21 after the opposition BJP and Congress said they would boycott it since it fell on the same day as Nuakhai, the major agricultural festival in western Odisha.