Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday appointed Subash Chauhan as the chairman of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC).
The council was without a political head for nearly three months with a bureaucrat holding additional charge of the post. The five-year term of former speaker of Odisha assembly Kishore Mohanty as WODC chairman had ended on June 18.
The Chief Minister had earlier appointed former minister Pushpendra Singhdeo as a member of the WODC, an organisation with an annual budget of Rs 100 crore.
Chauhan is a BJD general secretary and observer for Kalahandi, Balangir, Bargarh and Sambalpur districts.
A senior leader and former national convenor of the Bajrang Dal, he had joined the ruling BJD ahead of the 2019 election after BJP denied him ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bargarh.
