Eye on rural-urban polls, CM Naveen Patnaik appoints party observers

BHUBANESWAR: Signalling a revival of political activities with an eye on panchayat and urban local body polls next year, Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday appointed senior observers and observers of the party for all the 30 districts.

The six senior observers are Parliamentary Affairs Minister and vice-president Bikram Keshari Arukha, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari, senior vice-president Prasanna Acharya, vice-presidents Debi Prasad Mishra and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and former minister Maheswar Mohanty.

While Arukha will remain in charge of five southern districts, Mishra will look after six districts including Ganjam, Khurda and Puri. Pujari will look after crucial districts of Nuapada, Kalahandi, Balangir and Bargarh from where BJP had won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Patnaik will remain in-charge of seven districts including Sundargarh and Sambalpur which had gone into BJP kitty in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Acharya will remain in-charge of six coastal districts - Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore. Mohanty has been given charge two crucial districts, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.

The Chief Minister also appointed observers for 30 districts. Eight senior leaders have been given charge of districts from where BJD lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Pratap Keshari Deb (Balasore), Naba Kishore Das (Kalahandi), Pranab Prakash Das (Mayurbhanj ), Pritiranjan Ghadei (Sundargarh), Sudhir Samal (Bargarh), Sushanta Singh (Balangir) and Nalini Kanta Pradhan (Sambalpur). 

Two women leaders, Pramilla Malik and Usha Devi, have been kept in-charge of the important Khurda and Cuttack respectively.