BHUBANESWAR: The Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recommended Governor MC Bhandare for dissolution of the 13th Orissa Legislative Assembly to facilitate formation of the new Assembly.
The current Assembly which was constituted on May 15, 2004 will complete its full term on June 29.
The last Cabinet meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and three proposals were passed. While recommending the Governor to dissolve the Assembly under Article 174 of the Constitution, the meeting also proposed to prorogue the Assembly which was last convened on March 11.
The first session of this Assembly was summoned on June 30, 2004 and the 16th session was the last session which sat for six days in February to approve the vote-on-account for 2009-10.
As the Naveen Government became minority after BJP withdrew support on March 7, a special session of the House was convened on March 11 to prove his majority. The speaker adjourned the House sine die after the trust motion of the Government was passed by voice vote.
Sixty-one members of the Biju Janata Dal were elected to the 13th Assembly while the Congress and BJP had 38 and 32 members respectively. The JMM had four members, Orissa Gana Parishad-2, CPI-1, CPM-1 and eight independents.
Three members of Assembly - Shankarsan Naik (Sundergarh), Gajadhar Majhi (Talsara) and Anantram Majhi (Laxmipur) passed away. In the byelection to the three constituencies, Sushama Patel, wife of Naik, Prafulla Majhi and Purna Chandra Majhi were elected. After the constitution of the 13th Assembly, Senior Congress member Habibullah Khan was appointed the pro tem speaker on May 18 and he administered oath to the elected members on May 19 and 20, 2004.
Maheswar Mohanty and Prahalad Dora were elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker. However, Mohanty resigned on March 31, 2008 following the sexual harassment charge by a lady marshal of the Assembly. Kishore Kumar Mohanty became the next Speaker on August 19 the same year. Â