Naveen Patnaik appoints BJD district presidents

NEW DELHI: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has appointed 33 senior leaders including three ministers as district presidents of the regional party.nnPatnaik on Friday appointed Revenue and Disaster Management minister Sudam Marndi as BJD Mayurbhanj district president, Steel and Mines minister Prafulla Mallick as president of Dhenkanal district and Women and Child Welfare minister Tukuni Sahu as BJD district president of Bolangir.nn”It is certainly a challenge. We will work for the welfare of the people as per the direction and guidance of the chief minister,” said SahunnNabarangpur MP Ramesh Chandra Majhi has been appointed the BJD Nabarangpur district president.nnEight party MLAs were appointed as party district presidents. They are – Bijay Ranjan Singh Barhia (Bargarh), Ananta Narayan Jena (Bhubaneswar), Sarada Prasad Nayak (Rourkela), Kishore Mohanty (Jharsuguda), Mahidhar Rana (Boudh), Prasanta Muduli (Jagatsinghpur), Purna Chandra Baka (Malkangiri) and Ramesh Behera (Nayagarh).nnSenior party leader Maheswar Mohanty will be the new BJD Puri district president while Debashis Samantray, Rabinda Jena, Pushpendra Singhdeo and Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik will the district presidents of Cuttack, Balasore, Kalahandi and Ganjam respectively.nnSiddharth Das will be the new party district president of Sambalpur, Mahendra Bastia (Angul), Jagannath Swain (Bhadrak), Romancha Ranjan Biswal (Deogarh), Pradip Naik (Gajapati), Saroj Mohapatra (Jajpur), Utkal Keshari Parida (Kendrapara) and Saroj Karna (Kandhamal).nnPatnaik also announced that Madhav Sardar will be the district president of Keonjhar, Iswar Panigrahi (Koraput), Kashinath Hembram (Mayurbhanj), Ramesh Behera (Nayagarh), Manoj Mishra (Nuapada), Sudhir Das (Rayagada), Saroj Kampa (Sonepur) and Binay Toppo of Sundergarh.nnSource: Press Trust of India