Bhubaneswar: Senior leader and former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das has been appointed as the President of the Odisha Congress. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) announced this through an official statement on Tuesday.
Following the party’s dismal performance in the recent general elections in the state, former president Sarat Pattnayak had resigned from the post, leaving the position vacant.
Bhakta Charan Das has served as an MLA in the Odisha Legislative Assembly once and as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha three times. In the 1985 Odisha Assembly elections, he was elected from the Bhawanipatna Assembly constituency to the 9th Odisha Legislative Assembly. He was later elected to the Lok Sabha from the Kalahandi parliamentary constituency in the 1989, 1996, and 2009 general elections, representing the 9th, 11th, and 15th Lok Sabha, respectively.
Das initially started his political career as a worker of the Janata Party before joining the Indian National Congress. In the last Odisha Assembly elections, his son, Sagar Charan Das, was elected as an MLA in the Odisha Legislative Assembly.