KV named BJP state president

The party office here received an official communiqué in this regard from BJP national president Rajnath Singh’s office on Sunday. With the new change of guard, the four-time Patnagarh MLA replaces Jual Oram whose three-year tenure ended in December last.

An elated Singhdeo who is away in New Delhi said, “We’ll definitely reach the people with our development agenda and I completely believe that BJP will perform well in 2014 polls.”

As soon as the message spread, the party office here swung into joyous mood and jubilant members of the saffron party who were eagerly waiting for this development danced to the tunes of drums.
 
BJP national secretary and RS MP Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Rajnath Singh has appointed Singhdeo for next three years and we believe the party will get benefit from the appointment since he is an active leader with clean character and greater contacts with people at grass root level.”

“Under the leadership of KV, state BJP would emerge victorious in the coming polls,” added Pradhan.

But the Oram camp understandably could not digest the latest move.

A visibly disappointed Oram maintained, “I welcome the decision and since we had vowed to be united under any leadership the BJP high command chooses, we’ll stand by our words. Though personally I still have differences with KV, we’ll work together for the larger interest of the party.”

According to sources, Singhdeo on Sunday night met BJP national president Rajnath Singh to discuss the current situation of the state and further strategies of the party.

Similarly, Singhdeo met BJP national general secretary (Organization) Ram Lal after the formal announcement.

Singhdeo has been hogging the limelight for the past couple of days after speculation was rife about his new role with BJP high command zeroing on the BJP legislature party leader.  

On Friday party sources had said the BJP high command was most likely to announce the name of Singhdeo after the Central core committee meeting in New Delhi. State party leaders too had confirmed that central leadership of the party had held discussions with them regarding the latest move.

Singhdeo had submitted his resignation as the BJP legislature party leader before monsoon session of the state Assembly last year to send a strong message to the high command about the widening difference between him and the outgoing president Oram. Though his resignation was not accepted, the message was loud and clear that the Singhdeo camp wanted to resolve the issue as soon as possible with the baton to their leader.

The party’s state unit had been in a limbo after the three-year tenure of Jual Oram as the president ended in December and the Central high command asked the state party leaders to find a consensus candidate.

The state leaders had failed to appoint a successor promptly and the ball fell on the Central leadership’s court to decide on the matter. Several meetings between party’s State and Central leaders to resolve the deadlock came a cropper.

The issue was referred back to the State unit, but senior leaders of the State again could not arrive at a consensus. It was initially thought that the race was between Nayan Mohanty and Basant Panda. Mohanty is believed to be a protégé of Oram and Panda belonged to the rival camp.

Rajnath Singh after being elected as party president had announced that the vacant state unit president posts will be filled by March 10.