Pramila Mallik The First Women Speaker of Odisha legislative Assembly

Pramila Mallik of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party was elected unopposed as the speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly on 22 September 2023. She is the first woman speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The opposition parties did not put any candidate for the speaker post.

The speaker post fell vacant after the resignation of Bikram Keshari Arukha in May this year.

Pramila Mallik is a six time MLA from the Binjharpur assembly seat in the Jajpur district of Odisha. It is a reserved seat for the Scheduled Caste communities. She was first elected as an MLA in 1990 as a Janata Dal MLA, and later, she joined the BJD party headed by the current chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

She has been the minister in the BJD government, and before becoming the speaker, she was the Revenue and Disaster Management minister.

The total strength of the Odisha Legislative Assembly is 147.

Chief Minister of Odisha: Naveen Patnaik

Governor of Odisha: Ganeshi Lal 

Other facts to know 

• Shanno Devi was the first woman speaker of a state Legislative Assembly in India. She was the speaker of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 6 December 1966 to 17 March 1967.
• The first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha was Meira Kumar from 4 June 2009 to 5 June 2014.
• The first woman governor of India was  Sarojini Naidu of the United Province. She was the governor from 15 August 1947 to 2 March 1949. The name of the United Province was changed to Uttar Pradesh on 26 January 1950.
• The first woman Chief Minister was Sucheta Kriplani. She was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1963 to 1967.
• Indira Gandhi was the first woman Prime Minister of India. She became the Prime Minister in 1966.
• The first woman President of India was Pratibha Patil Singh. She was the President of India from 2007 to 2012.
• The first female cabinet minister in India was Amrit Kaur. She was the minister of Health in the Nehru government from 16 August 1947 to 1957.