Suresh Pujari unanimously elected Orissa BJP President

Bhubaneswar, Nov 7 (UNI) RSS-backed Suresh Pujari was today unanimously elected the next president of BJP's Orissa unit.

Although there were as many as three aspirants for the post, Mr Pujari emerged as the consensus candidate.

A student leader from Western Orissa, Mr Pujari led the anti- marwadi agitation and held the Sambalpur Municipality Chairman post before being inducted to the BJP in 1997.

Mr Pujari would succeed former Union Minister Juel Oram, whose term expired.

His name would be officially announced at a meeting here tomorrow attended by party's central leaders.

After being elected unanimously, Mr Pujari told the newsmen that he would strive hard to strengthen the BJD-BJP alliance in the state.

A strong alliance between the BJD-BJP could only defeat the Congress, he remarked.

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