Odisha Assembly Appoints Pramila Mallik, a six-time MLA, as Speaker, Becoming the State’s First Female Speaker

Pramila Mallik, a senior Biju Janata Dal politician, was on Friday overwhelmingly chosen to serve as the Speaker of the state Legislative Assembly, making history as the first woman to hold the esteemed position. At a special session conducted before to the start of the Monsoon Session of the House, Speaker-in-Charge Rajanikant Singh Mallik revealed the outcome of her election as the first female Speaker of the Odisha Assembly.

Notably, neither the opposition BJP nor the Congress put out a candidate for the role of Speaker.

The momentous Women’s Reservation Bill had just been passed in both chambers of parliament when the ascension took place. Naveen Patnaik, the leader of the house and the chief minister of Odisha, made a resolution to install Mallik as speaker during the election process, and Niranjan Pujari, the minister of parliamentary affairs, seconded it. Later, Patnaik followed Mallik to assume the office of Speaker of the House together with Mohan Majhi, top whip of the opposition BJP, Narasingha Mishra, and other prominent members.

Mallik thanked all of her fellow lawmakers in her first speech to the House and pleaded for cooperation to guarantee the smooth running of parliamentary proceedings. She vowed to devote herself fully to safeguarding the House’s honor and decorum.

In the meanwhile, CM Patnaik congratulated her on being the first female speaker of the Odisha Assembly and reaffirmed his complete faith in her competence. Patnaik said that Mallik’s broad experience will be very useful in her new position as Speaker given her previous roles as a lawmaker, minister, and government top whip. In light of the overwhelming majority of members of the governing party in the House, Narasingha Mishra, the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, welcomed Mallik and stated his confidence that she would preside impartially and protect the rights of opposition members.

I’ve known her since we both won seats in the legislative assembly in 1990, and I’ve seen her work as a minister and as the government top whip. As a Speaker, I expect her to remain unbiased, Mishra added.

Mohan Majhi, the top whip for the BJP, showed his joy by declaring that the party is pleased that Mallik has succeeded as the assembly’s first female speaker. Mallik, a six-time representative from the SC-reserved Binjharpur seat, resigned as minister of revenue and disaster management on Thursday and announced her candidacy for speaker of the house on behalf of the BJD. She was the only candidate for the election, however, since neither the BJP nor the Congress, the two main opposition parties, put forward a challenger.

Bikram Keshari Arukha’s departure as Speaker of the Odisha Assembly in May of this year left the office open. The election for Speaker was initially set for September 21, but it was subsequently moved to September 22 as a result of concerns expressed by the opposition Congress and BJP, who threatened to boycott the vote on September 21 in light of the ‘Nuakhai’ festival in Odisha.

In 1990, Mallik began her career in the Assembly as an MLA for the Janata Dal, representing Binjharpur. Later, she joined the BJD, and since 2000, she has won five straight local assembly elections. She has held political positions such as minister for women’s and children’s affairs from 2004 to 2011 and top whip for the government from May 30, 2019, to June 6, 2022. Before being chosen as Speaker, she first served as Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management.

As observed by senior MLA and the party’s vice-president, Debi Prasad Mishra, the BJD has reinforced its commitment to women’s empowerment by electing a Dalit woman as the first Speaker of the Assembly.