By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: As per a statement made by BJD general secretary (media affairs) Manas Mangaraj, six senior BJD leaders, Debi Prasad Mishra, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Prasanna Acharya and Maheswar Mohanty, were appointed as Senior Observers for several districts.
Mishra was appointed for Ganjam, Nayagarh, Kandhamal, Khordha, Puri and Boudh districts while Patnaik was given charge of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Deogarh, Angul and Dhenkanal.
Acharya is to look after the party affairs in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Baleswar districts and Mohanty is the Senior Observer for Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.
Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha was given the charge of southern districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Gajapati. Minister Niranjan Pujari is the Senior Observer for four western districts, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Balangir and Bargarh.
Senior MLA Pratap Keshari Deb was given the charge of Baleswar, Sudhir Kumar Samal for Bargarh, Prasanta Muduli for Angul, Pranab Balabantaray for Bhadrak, Soubhagya Nayak for Boudh and Usha Devi for Cuttack.
The party also named new Observers for the 30 districts. Party organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das was appointed as the Observer of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar while Chandra Sarathi Behera was appointed as the Observer of Koraput and Malkangiri.
Senior Ministers were also given charge of various districts. They are Prafulla Mallik (Ganjam), Samir Ranjan Dash (Jagatsinghpur), Ashok Chandra Panda (Jajpur), Naba Kishore Das (Kalahandi), Pratap Jena (Kandhamal), Sushanta Singh (Balangir & Deogarh), Tusharakanti Behera (Nabarangpur), Padmanav Behera (Nayagarh), Dibya Shankar Mishra (Nuapada), Ranendra Pratap Swain (Puri),
Senior MLA Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak will look after the party affairs in Gajapati and Rayagada and young leader Bijay Nayak will continue to work for Dhenkanal.
Nalini Kanta Pradhan is Observer of Sambalpur, Subash Singh for Jharsuguda, Debashish Samantaray for Kendrapada, Pramila Mallik for Khordha, Pradip Kumar Amat for Subarnapur and Pritiranjan Gharai for Sundargarh.
Two senior leaders, Sanjay Dasburma and Arun Sahoo, were not given any responsibility, which raised eyebrows. Dasburma was removed as Observers for two districts.
This sudden reshuffle in the party has created a spark within the party and power corridor. Political analysts feel it is an indication that Naveen Patnaik may make changes in the Ministry as well very soon in view of the upcoming urban and rural polls.
