BHUBANESWAR: The lobbying for the post of deputy speaker has intensified among the BJD legislators with the issue of notification for the Monsoon Session of the Assembly beginning August 17.
The post has fallen vacant after Deputy Speaker Lalbihari Himirika was inducted into the Cabinet in the May reshuffle. Sources said a noncontroversial person, who is an MLA for at least two terms, will be chosen. MLAs having organisational responsibility at the district and State levels will be avoided. Even though several senior MLAs are in the race for the post, a Scheduled Tribe MLA may be the dark horse. Baripada MLA Sananda Marandi seems to be ahead of others in the race. Others are Prafulla Mallick, Anant Das, Parsuram Panigrahi and Nrusingha Charan Sahu. A section in the party maintained that Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy may also make the cut. No decision has been taken on successor to Niranjan Panda, chairperson of the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC), who demitted office on Saturday. ENS
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