BHUBANESWAR: Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and former state cabinet minister Niranjan Pujari is set to become the next speaker of the Odisha assembly, with the party proposing his name Saturday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik proposed 53-year-old Pujari's name and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh seconded it.
Election of the speaker will be held Monday.
Pujari is likely to be elected unopposed as the ruling party has 117 members in the 147-member assembly. Opposition the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have 16 and 10 legislators respectively.
Pujari is a four time legislator who was re-elected from Sonepur constituency.
He was a cabinet minister in the state from 2011-14 and held charge of the departments of industries, excise, food supplies and consumer welfare, and science and technology.