Consecutive three-time Sambalpur MlA Jaynarayan Mishra was unanimously elected as the leader of BJP legislature Party at a meeting of the State party’s core committee comprising legislators, including new State president KV Singh Deo, and other leaders in the presence of and party national general secretary in-charge of Odisha Santosh Gangwar here on Sunday.
According to party sources, Mishra, a former Minister, was in race for the legislature party leader’s post with Baliguda MlA Karendra Majhi, who has the distinction of being a strong follower of the slain VHP leader Swami laxamanananda Saraswati besides being the secretary of the legislature party.
In last August, the saffron party had received a jolt following the resignation of KV Singh Deo as the leader of legislature party due to his differences with former State party president Jual Oram. But Singh Deo’s resignation was not accepted by the party high command.
Meanwhile, it was decided at an earlier high-level State party meeting on the day that a fresh team of office-bearers of the party under new president KV Singh Deo would be formed by the end of April.
The meeting, first after Singh Deo took the charge, was attended by Santosh Gangwar at the party’s office here on Sunday.
“We discussed on how to strengthen the party. We gave a positive message to people that we would include all activists in building the organisational structure and hand over responsibility to each one of them,” Singh Deo said.
It was also decided that the process of selection of presidents of remaining 15 organisational districts would be completed by April 15 while the process for the State-level office-bearers would be over by April 30.
The meeting delved into several issues to strengthen the organisations within the party for the ensuing municipality election, sources said.
Party national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan, former State party president Jual Oram and senior leaders Biswabhusan Harichandan, Bijay Mohapatra, Suresh Pujari, Bimbadhar Kuanr and Manmohan Samal participated in the discussions.