Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD Lawmaker Saluga Pradhan today filed his nomination papers for Odisha Assembly Deputy Speaker post.
The Deputy Speaker election will be held on tomorrow (November 21).
Shri Saluga, a two-time MLA from G. Udayagiri Assembly segment in Kandhamal district, belongs to ST community.
Accompanied by senior Ministers and other MLAs, Shri Pradhan submitted his nomination paper to Assembly Secretary Dasarathi Satpathy here.
Shri Pradhan thanked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for reimposing faith on him and giving such an important responsibility to a tribal man.
As the Governing party was stated to be in backfoot over the ST land transfer row, he picked a tribal man to downplay the issue. Besides, Shri Pradhan is coming from Western Odisha, which will also help the BJD, said a political observer.
On November 8 last, Rajanikanta Singh resigned from the post to devote himself in organisational work as assembly and general elections are approaching.
