BONHOMIE prevailed in the Assembly today after a bitter fight between the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Bharatiya Janata Patry (BJP) and Congress over the Speaker’s election.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and leader to the Opposition smiled at each other and shook hands in the well of the House even as other senior leaders Biswabhusan Harichandan, Manmohan Samal and Narasingh Mishra looked on. Naveen and JB escorted the new Speaker Kishore Kumar Mohanty to his seat.
Mohanty was elected Speaker of the Assembly amidst boycott by the Congress .in the special sitting to elect the 16th Speaker, action Speaker Prahallad Dore placed before the House the motion for election to the coveted post.
The motion was passed by voice vote with CPI member Narayan Reddy and Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Arun Dey supporting it, while Congress boycotted the election process accusing the ruling BJD-BJP combine of unilaterally deciding the candidate for the post without proper consultation.
Four Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) members were also absent.
Soon after the election, the Congress MLAs entered the House and greeted the new Speaker.
“I will sincerely uphold the dignity of the post and work in coordination with all parties in an impartial way seeking cooperation of all,” said Mohanty.
While Naveen described Mohanty as capable of discharging the new responsibility, JB said his party was not opposed to Mohanty‘s election, but objected to the way the Opposition was ignored by the ruling alliance during the election.
The election was necessitated after Maheswar Mohanty had to quit in March in the wake of sexual harassment charges leveled against him by a lady marshal of the Assembly.