Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday appointed BJD leader Subash Chouhan as the chairman of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC). Chouhan hailing from Bargarh district had joined the BJD before general elections in 2019 after BJP denied him a ticket to contest. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 elections on a BJP ticket and garnered over 3.72 lakh votes. He lost to BJD’s Prabhas Kumar Singh by a margin of 11,178 votes.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has formed an Election Coordination Committee for the Bijepur by-poll comprising Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari, Rural Development Minister Sushanta Singh, former MP Kalikesh Singh Deo and former minister Sanjay Das Burma.