Bhubaneswar, Jul 8 (PTI) The ruling BJP on Tuesday reappointed Manmohan Samal as its Odisha unit president.
Samal’s reappointment to the post was announced by the BJP’s central election observer Sanjay Jaiswal in the presence of senior leaders at the party’s state headquarters here . He was the lone leader to file the nomination for the post and therefore was elected unopposed, Jaiswal said.
This will be Samal’s second consecutive term and fourth term in all. His earlier three terms were from November 1999 to October 2000, October 2000 to May 2004, and March 2023 to July 2025.
The party also announced the names of 32 leaders as BJP National Council members.
While responding to a rousing felicitation from the party workers and leaders, Samal said that the BJP, which was once dubbed as a “signboard” party by opponents, has formed the government on its own in Odisha after a long struggle.
“This BJP government will see 2036 (when Odisha completes 100 years of its formation) and 2047 (when India attends 100 years of Independence) as well. For this, we will have to work in a team spirit,” he said.
The BJP in Odisha has an efficient chief minister, able ministers, good MPs, popular MLAs and dedicated workers, Samal said. “All should work together. Impossible is not in our vocabulary. Everything is possible. The party will solidly stand by the government led by Mohan Charan Majhi,” he said.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi welcomed Samal and described him as “lucky” for BJP. “When Samal was president of BJP in 2000, the party formed government, though in coalition with BJD. Later when Samal took charge during the 2024 elections, the BJP formed its maiden government alone. Therefore, Samal is lucky for the BJP,” Majhi said.
The CM said he is a four-time MLA and Samal is a four-time BJP state president. “The power of this combine can defeat any force,” Majhi said “The BJP is in power for 11 years at the Centre and one year in the state. Taking them together, it is 12. But it will reach 112 in the future. The party and the government are two sides of one coin,” the CM said.
Puri MP Sambit Patra said: “The government has 3 Ms – Manmohan, Mohan and Modi – at the helm.” Born on April 15, 1959, in Bhadrak district, Samal belongs to the OBC community, which constitutes more than 50 per cent of the state’s population.
He joined politics as a student and was elected the students’ union president of Bhadrak College in 1979 as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
He rose through the ranks and was made a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government headed by Naveen Patnaik in the early 2000s. He held portfolios such as Revenue and Disaster Management, and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare.
He was then an MLA from the Dhamnagar constituency.
BJP insiders said Samal’s reappointment for a record fourth term to the post was a reward by the central leadership for his role in bringing the party to power in the state last year by routing the BJD government of 24 years.
He was made the state president on an ad-hoc basis in 2023, barely a year ahead of the elections. Within a short span of time, his efforts ensured that the BJP won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state and secured an absolute majority to form the government, they said.
The BJP won 78 seats in the 147-member assembly, while Patnaik’s BJD secured 51 seats. Congress won 14 seats, CPI(M) secured one, and three Independent candidates also won.
However, Samal himself lost the assembly election from the Chandabali seat in the Bhadrak district. PTI AAM SOM AAM RG
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