Bhubaneswar, May 26 (IANS): Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and former state cabinet minister Niranjan Pujari was Monday elected the speaker of the Odisha legislative assembly, an official said.
The four-time legislator was elected unopposed as no other candidate was fielded by any political party against him.
The BJD own 117 seats in the 147-member assembly in the 2014 polls held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. Pujari, 53, is a four-time legislator and 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.