BJP Reappoints Manmohan Samal As Its Odisha Unit President

The re -appointment of Samal was announced by Sanjay Jaiswal, BJP’s Central Election Observer, in the presence of senior leaders in the party center of the party.

Jaiswal said that the nomination for the task was the only leader and therefore not elected without being elected.

This will be Samal’s second term and fourth term. The previous three terms were between November 1999 – October 2000, October 2000 – May 2004 and March 2023 – July 2025.

Born in the Bhadrak region on April 15, 1959, Samal belongs to the OBC community, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the state population.

He joined politics as a student and in 1979 he was elected as the President of the Student Union of Bhadrak College as a member of Achil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishhad (ABVP).

He rose to ranks and became a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government, headed by Naveen Patnaik in the early 2000s. Revenue and disaster management, food supplies and consumer welfare portfolios.

Later, the Dhamnagar was a mla from the election zone.

BJP Insiders said that the re -appointment of Samal for the fourth term for the fourth term was awarded by the central leadership for 24 years and rewarded the party for his role in bringing power in the state.

Almost a year before the elections, in 2023, the president was temporarily. In a short period of time, his efforts enabled BJP to win 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state and provide an absolute majority to form the government.

BJP won 78 seats in the 147 -member parliament, while Patnaik’s BJD received 51 seats. Congress won 14 seats, CPI (M) and won three independent candidates.

However, Samal lost the election of the Assembly from the Chandabali seat in the Bhatrak region.