Naveen Patnaik re-elected as BJD president for eighth time

BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday was re-elected as the president of BJD for the eighth consecutive time at the party’s state council meeting here at the party headquarters.
BJD’s state returning officer Pratap Keshari Deb announced the name of Naveen, who was the only leader to have filed the nominations for the post of BJD president.
With a Gita Gobinda Khandua Pata (which is usually offered to Lord Jagannath) on his shoulder, Naveen invoked Lord Jagannath after his re-election. He was also offered khaja (popular prasad of Puri temple), which was an apparent attempt to showcase that Naveen is a great devotee of Lord Jagannath.
In his brief extempore to party leaders, Naveen said, “BJD doesn’t work for winning elections but to win the hearts of people of Odisha and to serve them.”
Remembering his late father and former chief minister Biju Patnaik, Naveen said, “As Biju Babu has said, people are the masters in a democracy and we are there to serve them.”
He also thanked the 4.5 crore people of Odisha for giving him an opportunity to serve them.
The 73-year old politician, who is believed to have reluctantly joined politics after death of his legendary father, has been leading the regional party since its inception on December 26, 1997. He has also proved to be the unchallenged leader in the party as his charismatic leadership helped BJD to retain power for record fifth successive terms in the last assembly election held in May last year.
With Naveen at the helm of affairs again, the BJD leaders are hopeful that party would achieve more success in the days to come. “Naveen Babu is such a leader that he never faced any defeat in any election. Also, ever since he became the chief minister, the BJD is also continuously winning elections. He is going to create a rare record in Indian politics,” said AU Singh Deo, one of the founding members of the regional party.
Along with Naveen, the party has also elected an 80-member state executive committee, the apex decision making body. As many as eight women leaders have been included in the state executive committee, which has also representation from various categories like scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and minority communities.
Names of many senior leaders like Prasanna Acharya, AU Singh Deo and Prafulla Ghadai have been omitted from the 80-member list while young leaders like Debeash Acharya, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Priti Ranjan Ghadai, Biplab Patra (son of speaker SN Patro) are included in the state executive committee.