Bhubaneswar: Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Odisha Assembly and former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was on Saturday formally elected as the president of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the ninth time in a row.
As no one else from the regional party had filed nomination for the post, Naveen was elected unopposed. Senior leader Pratap Keshari Deb officially announced the election of Naveen to the top post after a meeting of the party’s state council at Shankh Bhawan.
As per sources, Naveen is likely to form his new team after becoming the party chief again. He is likely to appoint a new working president after taking charge, while the number of vice presidents may be increased.
Some new posts and committees may also be created by the BJD supremo for smooth functioning of the party. Naveen is likely to abolish the post of organisational secretary and revive the secretary general post, the sources added.
Soon after being elected the BJD chief for another term, Naveen was greeted by party leaders and workers. “Under his leadership, we will work together and will bring the party to power again in 2029,” said a senior BJD leader.
Addressing party workers, Naveen said that BJD missed the last election with a narrow margin even though the regional party got more popular votes.
“This is because we couldn’t effectively counter the false narrative. Even now creating false narrative is the main strategy against BJD. We should be aggressive in exposing this false narrative especially in social media,” he said.
“Let me be honest in telling that we need to strongly improve put social media presence. Technology should be used to tell facts and without technology we can not reach out to people,” the BJD supremo added.
