Basant Panda appointed new Orissa BJP president

BHUBANESHWAR: BJP’s Odisha unit on Thursday unanimously elected Basant Kumar Panda as state party president.

Panda, 54, a two-time MLA representing Nuapada constituency, will replace K V Singh Deo. He was elected unopposed.

A Sangh Parivar member from Western Odisha, Panda promised to strengthen BJP's grass roots presence in a state where the party holds just one Lok Sabha seat.

His priorities, he said, would include spreading awareness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s welfare programmes and exposing the ruling Biju Janata Dal’s “misrule”.

The BJP, which once shared power with Naveen Patnaik's BJD, has — like Congress — lost ground with Patnaik seeming to go from strength to strength every five years.

Interestingly, BJD has supported several bills the Modi government introduced in Parliament.

Odisha BJP chose Panda ahead of some other senior leaders including Balasore leader Pratap Chandra Sarangi who enjoys a rare reputation of “spotless” honesty and whose name was doing rounds as a possible candidate.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior BJP leader said, “While Sarangi may be more eloquent, Panda is the more dynamic one. He will though be faced with the challenge of increasing BJP’s strength in the coastal region, where the party’s traditionally been weak.”

Odisha’s economic prosperity, cultural identity and politics reflect a western, eastern-coastal divide.