Bhubaneswar: There were nine new faces in the list of presidents of 29 organisational districts the ruling BJD announced by party supremo Naveen Patnaik here on Wednesday.
The nine newly appointed presidents are Mahidhara Rana (Boudh), Sudhir Kumar Kapardar (Deogarh), Pradeep Kumar Nayak (Gajapati), Pushpendra Singhdeo (Kalahandi), Dhruba Sahoo (Kendrapara), Ashish Chakravarty (Keonjhar), Bibhuti Bhusan Balabantray (Khurda), Manas Madkami (Malkangiri) and Saroj Kumar Kampa (Subarnapur).
While there was no announcement of president for Sambalpur, Ganjam and Balangir districts, there is no change of president in the remaining districts.
The names of those who have been retained as the presidents of the remaining organisational districts are Rajani Kanta Singh (Angul), Ananta Das (Balasore), Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha (Bargarh), Arjun Charan Sethi (Bhadrak), Babuli Mishra (Bhubaneswar), Pratap Jena (Cuttack), Nrusingha Charan Sahu (Dhenkanal), BIshnu Charan Das (Jagatsinghpur), Kishore Kumar Mohanty (Jharsuguda), Naresh Chandra Mohanty (Jajpur), Saroj Kumar Karna (Kandhamal), Jayaram Pangi (Koraput), Laxman Tudu (Mayurbhanj), Rabi Narayan Mahapatra (Nayagarh), Ramesh Chandra Majhi (Nabarangpur), Prasanna Kumar Padhi (Nuapada), Maheswar Mohanty (Puri), Ananda Chandra Mohanty (Rourkela), Sudhir Kumar Das (Rayagada) and Sundergarh (Mangala Kisan).
“Selection of BJD presidents for 29 organisational districts has been completed. In the remaining three districts the selection has not been made as the party’s district election officers have sought more time to finalise the name of the candidates,” BJD State Election Officer Pratap Deb told OTV.
He said the election of the BJD State Council members would begin from tomorrow after which the election of the party’s state executive member would be held. The election process of the party would conclude with the election of the party’s president by March 1.
BJD has not announced the name of the presidents for Sambalpur, Balangir and Ganjam districts. Election for Sambalpur district president is delayed to a tussle between the present district president Rohit Pujari and the sitting MLA Raseswari Panigrahi. In Balangir the race is between the present district president Kalikesh Narayan Singhdeo and minister Jogendra Behera while in Ganjam district, the BJD workers are opposed to the re-election of the present district president Subas Maharana.
Stating that the party organization in the district was very weak earlier, Sambalpur district BJD president Rohit Pujari said the chief minister would take a decision to further strengthen the party base here.
Talking to OTV, Berhampur MLA Ramesh Chandra Chaupatnaik said the present district president has a major role in the party organization in Ganjam district. “Considering his ability, there is no doubt that the chief minister would re-nominate him as the district president,” he pointed out.