Bhubaneswar, 8 July

The ruling BJP on Tuesday reappointed Manmohan Samal as its Odisha unit president.

Samal's reappointment to the post was announced by the BJP's central election observer Sanjay Jaiswal in the presence of senior leaders at the party's state headquarters.

He was the lone leader to file the nomination for the post and, therefore, elected unopposed, Jaiswal said.

This will be Samal's second consecutive term and fourth term in all. His earlier three terms were from November 1999 to October 2000, October 2000 to May 2004, and March 2023 to July 2025.

Born on April 15, 1959, in Bhadrak district, Samal belongs to the OBC community, which constitutes more than 50 per cent of the state's population.

He joined politics as a student and was elected the students' union president of the Bhadrak College in 1979 as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

He rose through the ranks and was made a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government headed by Naveen Patnaik in the early 2000s. He held portfolios such as revenue and disaster management, and food supplies and consumer welfare.

He was then an MLA from the Dhamnagar constituency.

BJP insiders said Samal's reappointment for a record fourth term to the post was a reward by the central leadership for his role in bringing the party to power in the state last year by routing the BJD government of 24 years.

He was made the state president on an ad-hoc basis in 2023, barely a year ahead of the elections. Within a short span of time, his efforts ensured that the BJP won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state and secure an absolute majority to form the government, they said.

The BJP won 78 seats in the 147-member assembly, while Patnaik's BJD secured 51 seats. Congress won 14 seats, CPI(M) secured one, and three Independent candidates also won.

However, Samal himself lost the assembly election from the Chandabali seat in the Bhatrak district.