Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who won two seats in the recently-concluded assembly elections, Sunday decided to leave the Bijepur seat amid speculations about the fate of the two seats he had won simultaneously.
In a letter to the Odisha Legislative Assembly Speaker, the Chief Minister said he had decided to resign from the Bijepur assembly seat and retain his previously-held Hinjili constituency.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had fought and won from two seats simultaneously – Hinjli and Bijepur. He has decided to retain the Hinjli seat and abdicate the Bijepur seat. As the Speaker of the House, it is my duty to inform the Election Commission about this on the next working day,” Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro told reporters Sunday.
Earlier, there were speculations about the most likely seat the BJD patriarch may choose to retain – either Bijepur in western Odisha or Hinjili in the east.
The panchayat elections in 2017 saw a surge of saffron votes especially in the western part of the state. Although the Chief Minister recently announced a slew of developmental measures for Bijepur area, he has now decided to leave the seat paving way for a by-election to the constituency.
The CM earlier had decided to fight from the western Odisha seat citing the demand of the people from the area. However, Patnaik’s decision to abdicate Bijepur constituency after winning it could disappoint people in the area who voted him to power with a lot of hope and expectation.
Patnaik in his letter the Speaker also thanked the people of Bijepur profusely for reposing their trust in him.
Pinaki to be BJD leader in LS
Four-time MP from Puri Pinaki Misra was Sunday nominated as the parliamentary party leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Lok Sabha. BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has nominated Misra as the party leader in the lower house of Parliament, BJD general secretary Bijay Nayak said. Similarly, Kandhamal MP Achyutananda Samanta has been nominated as the BJD Chief Whip and Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty as party’s deputy Chief Whip in Lok Sabha. Former Dhenkanal MP Tathagata Satpathy, who did not contest elections this time, was the party’s Chief Whip in the lower House last time. Patnaik has also nominated six-time MP from Cuttack, Bhartruhari Mahtab, to be the chairman of the standing committee which will be allotted to the BJD. The BJD has won 12 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while BJP bagged eight and Congress one.