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.