Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Former Odisha unit of BJP president K V Singhdeo and former chief minister Giridhar Gamang were inducted into the BJP national executive, a party release said.
The two veteran senior leaders to the top decision-making body of the saffron party comes a day ahead of its two-day national executive meeting at Allahabad to start on Sunday.
Five-time MLA Singhdeo, who resigned the state unit chief post for Basanta Panda, was a natural choice for the post this time as all state unit presidents are members of the national executive.
Sources said the party gave recognition to Gamang who left Congress and joined the BJP in June last year. The nine-time MP strengthens BJP's presence in tribal-dominated southern Odisha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, BJP chief ministers, state unit presidents and other national executive members are scheduled to attend the meeting.
Besides BJP state unit president Basanta Panda and general secretary (organisation) Sarada Prasad Satpathy, six leaders from the state are currently members of the national executive. They include Union ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray, Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Bijay Mohapatra and Suresh Pujari.