Pravati Parida

Pravati Parida (born 1967) is an Indian politician from Odisha. She became the first woman Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha. She is also the Minister of Women and Child Development, Mission Shakti, and Tourism. She is an MLA from Nimapara Assembly Constituency in Puri District representing Bharatiya Janata Party. She won the 2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly election.

Early life and education
Parida is from Nimapara. She married Shyam Sundar Nayak, a former government servant. She completed her LLB at Utkal University in 1995 and enrolled as an advocate in Odisha High Court, in the same year for some time. Later, she also did M.A. in Public Administration in 2005, also from Utkal University.

Career
Parida won the Nimapara Assembly Constituency representing Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly election. She polled 95,430 votes and defeated Dilip Kumar Nayak of Biju Janata Dal by a narrow margin of 4,588 votes.

On 12 June 2024, she took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha along with Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Mohan Charan Majhi as chief minister at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. Governor Raghubar Das administered their oath. prime minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, along with chief ministers of 10 BJP-ruled states were present. She became the first female deputy CM of Odisha.