Odisha Congress MLAs Will Skip Speaker Election for Nuakhai Festival

Bhubaneswar: Congress MLAs will not participate in the election to the post of Odisha Assembly Speaker scheduled to be held on September 21.

The monsoon session of the State Assembly will start on September 22 a day after the election of the Speaker. The date for filing of nomination papers for the election to the Speaker post is September 18.

In a statement, the state Congress media cell chairman Ganeswar Behera said, western Odisha’s most popular festival ‘Nuakhai’ is going to be celebrated on September 20 and  ‘Nuakhai Bhetghat’ will be observed on September 21.

So, the Congress legislators will be present in their respective areas to celebrate the Nuakhai festival and will not be able to take part in the Speaker election, he added.

In view of the importance of this popular festival, the state government generally declares holiday for two days every year. However, only one holiday has been declared this year, he said.

Nuakhai is the most important agrarian festival in western Odisha and is celebrated with pomp and gaiety in Sambalpur, Balangir, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Kalahandi, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Boudh and Sonepur.