Bhubaneswar: Senior bureaucrat and IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi, whose Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) application was approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, is all set to join the BJP November 27, top sources said.
According to the sources, the 1994-batch bureaucrat will join the Saffron Party in New Delhi in presence of party Chief Amit Shah and other senior leaders. Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will also be present on the occasion.
Sarangi will return to Odisha the following day where the state BJP leaders will welcome her at the party office in Bhubaneswar.
Speculation is rife that the former commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal corporation (BMC) might contest 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket. Sarangi, however, neither confirmed nor denied it.
It may be noted here that the Odisha Cadre IAS officer, had submitted her voluntary retirement September 15 after which the state Government had approved her VRS application on November 14. She was serving as joint secretary (MGNREGA), Ministry of Rural Development, but her five-year tenure on central deputation ended in August.
The Bihar-born IAS officer, according to political observers, was wooed by the BJP top brass in order to put up a strong show in 2019 elections.
Sarangi was making headlines frequently and perceived to be very popular during her BMC stint from 2006 to 2009 for her strict principles and several measures to address civic woes in the city.
Married to her batchmate Santosh Sarangi, she had worked as Director, Panchayati Raj Department; Secretary, School and Mass Education Department; Secretary, Higher Education; Commissioner, consolidation; and Secretary, Textiles and Handloom.
The frequency of her transfers had raised several eyebrows, indicating that she was not in the good books of the ruling BJD. This, sources believe, could have prompted the 49-year-old Aparajita to consider taking the political plunge.
BJD’s Prasanna Patasani has been representing the Bhubaneswar parliamentary seat continuously since 1998, tasting triumph at the hustings consecutively on five occasions (1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014).
Aparajita’s possible entry into the electoral fray would add to the growing number of former and serving bureaucrats joining politics in Odisha during the last couple of decades.
PNN
