By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 3, 2016 : Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sprung a surprise for party members as well as political analysts by taking some strange faces in various organizational wings of his party.

The permutations and combinations effected in different wings, according to political analysts, defy reason and logic.
Many predicted that senior leader Dr Damodar Rout will be chastised for separately holding a Biju Patnaik birth centenary celebration at Pardip, his constituency, – challenging the party’s celebration in Bhubaneswar.

However, in the new list of office-bearers released late on Wednesday evening,Dr Rout continues to remain as vice president.

Apart from Dr Rout, Rajya Sabha member Ananga Uday Singhdeo, Suryanarayan Patro and Prasanna Acharya also remain as vice presidents as before. However, the number of the vice presidents in the new list has increased this time by addition of five more leaders. Bed Prakash Agrawal and Bimbadhar Kuanr, who are originally from BJP but joined BJD a few years ago, – have been taken as vice presidents. The other vice presidents are Usha Devi, N. Bhaskar Rao and Hrusikesh Nayak.

Sources said that the new additions were made in the vice president list to squeeze the powers the old faces, including Dr Rout.

There are two news faces in the 10-member general secretary wing. They are former JMM leader Sudam Marandi and former NCP leader Prashant Nanda who joined BJD respectively before the 2014 and 2009 Assembly polls.

BJD spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy has failed to find a place in the state executive committee.

It was also expected that Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Debashis Samantaray would be dropped for his alleged links with gangsters Sushil Dhalsamanta and Sushant Dhalsamanta. However, he has found his place in the list of general secretaries.

Eight new leaders have been taken in the team of general secretaries. Among them include Balasore MP Rabindra Jena, energy minister Pranab Prakash Das, Bhubaneswar mayor Anant Jena, MLA Priyadarshi Mishra and MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal.