Ending all speculations, the Odisha unit of the BJP on Thursday elected Nuapada MlA and State legislature Party leader Basant Panda as its president.
Panda filed his nomination papers for the post in morning. The party had fixed January 14 as nomination filing day, but no other leader filed nomination papers except him. Hence, he was elected unopposed.
Party election officer Raj Kishore Das announced Panda as the new State party president at a Press conference here in the presence of central election observer Saroj Pandey.
Party leaders like national secretary and Odisha-in-charge Arun Singh, Pandey, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, outgoing State president KV Singh Deo and senior leaders Bibhutibhushan Harichandan, Suresh Pujari, Pratap Sarangi, Manmohan Samal and Rudra Narayan Pany greeted Panda with bouquets.
Sources said Panda, a two-time MlA, was the party’s best choice for now to head the State unit as he has long attachment with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and is an incumbent MlA belonging to western parts of the State where the party has a strong base. He had won the Nuapada Assembly seat first in the year 2000.
“I would continue the ongoing party programmes. The party would take all steps to bring the scams of the State Government before the people,” said Panda.
Moreover, 21 members, one from each lok Sabha constituency, were elected to the party’s National Council on consensus on the day. They are Shakuntala Mohapatra (Bargarh), Mahendra Majhi (Sundargarh), Debendra Mohapatra (Sambalpur), Bhabani Shankar Nayak (Keonjhar), Nabacharan Majhi (Mayurbhanj), Shyam Prasad Behera (Baleswar), Sharat Das (Bhadrak), Binod Bihari Jena (Kalahandi), Bijay Mohapatra (Cuttack), Rudra Madhab Ray (Kandhamal), Baidyanath Charterjee (Kendrapada), Baidhar Mallick (Jagatsinghpur), Bishwanath Rath (Puri), Ratikant Dash (Bhubaneswar), Suresh Kumar Padhi (Aska), Kunjabiharhi Panigrahi (Brahmapur) and Kaliram Majhi (Koraput).