Maqsood Ali was appointed the new president of the Odisha unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by party national president Sharad Pawar following a restructuring in the party’s State unit.
The NCP, which had been reduced to a rump after the merger of its legislature party with the BJD in 2012, was also recently deserted by former Baleswar MlA and NCP leader Arun Dey who joined the BJD.
Earlier, all the four NCP MlAs Amar Prasad Satpathy (leader of the legislature party), Prashant Nanda, Navin Nanda and Ramachandra Hansda, had joined the BJD along with party State general secretary Manu Choudhury on June 5, 2012.