Odisha’s Former Chief Secy Bijay Patnaik Joins Congress

New Delhi: The former chief secretary of Odisha, Bijay Patnaik Joined the Congress on Friday. He was formally inducted into the party at the headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi in the presence of several senior leaders of the party. Odisha Congress in-charge A Chellakumar and the party’s state unit president Sarat Pattanayak were also present.

According to sources, this former bureaucrat from Odisha was impressed by the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. Due to it, he was in touch with the national leaders of Congress.

It is likely that Bijay Patnaik will be given a senior position in the Odisha unit of Congress.

Bijay Patnaik is a 1976 batch Odisha cadre IAS officer. He retired from the post of Chief Secretary of Odisha in 2013. After retirement, he was appointed as the chairman of the Odisha Staff Selection Commission and as a member of the Odisha Human Rights Commission. It was speculated that he may join BJD and get a Rajya Sabha berth. But it did not happen.

In 2015, he joined the Anil Agarwal Foundation as the President of the Vedanta University Project. He left the post after two years alleging that Anil Agarwal Foundation was not interested in establishing the Vedanta University.

In 2022, there were rumors about his plans to join Congress. But he had refuted it saying he had no interest in politics.