Naveen Patnaik, the president of the BJD and former chief minister, has been unanimously elected as the Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly consequent to his election as legislature party leader in the meeting held at party headquarters, Sankha Bhawan. After the meeting with newly-elected BJD MLAs, Patnaik expressed thanks and congratulated them. He further pointed out that it was his fellow Legislators from the BJD who elected him to lead them in the legislature party as well as in the opposition.
Apart from that, Patnaik declared the appointment of senior party leader Prasanna Acharya as the deputy leader of the BJD legislature party and named Pramila Mallik and Pratap Keshari Deb as the party's chief whip and deputy chief whip respectively. He said today's discussion with the MLAs touched upon a host of issues, including the recent election outcomes.
Naveen Patnaik entered politics at the age of 77 after his father and Janata Dal icon Biju Patnaik's death in 1997. He had held an unbeaten record of electoral wins since his debut in the year 2000 till date. In the assembly elections of 2024, though earlier in 2019, it won 112 of the 147 seats, the BJD won just 51 seats. Patnaik entered the fray from his hometown constituency of Hinjili in Ganjam as well as Kantabanji in Balangir, which he lost.
