TV
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday declared the appointment of new presidents to different organisational districts in the State.
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18 district presidents include:
The newly-elected district presidents are Braja Kishore Pradhan (Angul), Pradeep Amat (Boudh), Sushant Mohapatra (Bargarh), Prashant Muduli (Jagatsinghpur), Saroj Mahapatra (Jajpur), Sudam Marndi (Mayurbhanj-1), Manohar Randhari (Nabarangpur), Jagannath Swain (Bhadrak), Romanch Ranjan Biswal (Deogarh), Pradeep Nayak (Gajapati), Harish Ganatra (Jharsuguda), Padmanabh Behera (Kandhamal), Manas Madkami (Malkangiri), Ramesh Chandra Behera (Nayagarh), Abani Ranjan Joshi (Nuapada), Umakanta Samantaray (Puri), Saroj Kumar Kampa (Subarnapur), and Jogesh Singh (Sundargarh).
Notably, the district presidents names were announced by the party’s State Returning Officer (SRO) Pratap Keshari Deb.
According to Deb, the presidents were elected without contest, as only one nomination was filed in each organisational district. The internal elections took place over a three-day period starting April 13, with the next phase scheduled to commence tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, a decision expected at a meeting held in the BJD headquarters Sankha Bhawan, regarding selection of the party’s new president for Kendrapara district, reportedly ignited heated arguments.
Senior BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishra and the party’s Rajnagar MLA Dhruba Charan Sahoo were at the centre of heated discussions on the matter.
During the proceedings, various proposals were presented for the BJD district-level position, resulting in fervent dialogue amongst the attendees. Witness accounts suggest that these exchanges became quite vocal at times, illustrating the intensity of the disagreement.
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Adding to the complexity, MLA Manohar Randhari highlighted that organisational unrest is apparent in 11 to 12 other districts, indicating wider political implications.
