Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday appointed former Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena as Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) Chairman. Jena would assume the office replacing Housing and Urban Development Minister Niranjan Pujari.
The appointment came ahead of the elections indicating that Jena would not be a candidate of the BJD to contest the Assembly polls. Jena, who recently ceased to the BMC Mayor after completion of his tenure recently, was earlier believed to be one of the contenders to get BJD ticket to fight polls in one of the three constituencies in Bhubaneswar.
However, the new assignment by the Chief Minister to the former Mayor clearly shows that he will be out of the list of poll candidates.