BHUBANESWAR: Eleven months after the electoral debacle, BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Monday restructured the party’s organisational set up by reviving the political affairs committee (PAC) and announcing the state office-bearers along with convenors of the frontal wings.
Naveen, who will head the 10-member PAC, has abolished the post of general secretary (organisation) which had turned into an independent power centre in the last decade.
Former general secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das, who had resigned from the post in the aftermath of the party’s defeat in 2024, has made a comeback as a vice-president and PAC member. The party president had dissolved the state committees and dismissed all office-bearers immediately after the election results.
The PAC has been filled up by loyalists including Opposition chief whip in the Assembly Pramila Mallik, BJD leader in the Rajya Sabha Sasmit Patra, former ministers Bikram Keshari Arukha, Niranjan Pujari, Sanjay Das Burma, Sudam Marndi, Tukuni Sahu and political secretary to Naveen, Santrupt Misra.
Several senior leaders who had recently questioned the functioning of the party like deputy leader of the BJD legislature party Prasanna Acharya, former ministers and senior MLAs Ranendra Pratap Swain and Badri Narayan Patra have been shunted to different frontal cells and kept out of the PAC. Senior leaders like Bhupinder Singh and Sashi Bhusan Behera, the other prominent dissidents, have not been given any post.
Several other senior leaders like former minister Arun Sahoo, Rajya Sabha member Debashish Samantaray, former ministers AU Singh Deo, Mangala Kissan and former RS member Amar Patnaik have also been appointed as convenors of different frontal organisations.
The BJD president has announced 71 state office-bearers with chairman of the party’s coordination committee Debi Prasad Mishra as a senior vice-president (headquarters). The party will also have six other senior vice-presidents including former Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, Pramila Mallik, Arukha, former ministers Usha Devi, Prafulla Samal and Pujari. Cuttack mayor Subash Singh has been appointed as the treasurer.
The jumbo team of state office-bearers has eight vice-presidents, 20 senior general secretaries and 35 general secretaries to placate all factions in the party. Naveen also appointed presidents of six more organisational districts including former minister Ashok Das for Bhubaneswar.