Bhubaneswar, June 25 -- Ending months of political speculation, former IAS officer Sujata Kartikeyan formally joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday in the presence of party president and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Sujata, wife of former bureaucrat turned politician and close aide of Naveen Patnaik, V.K. Pandian, was inducted into the party at a function held at Sankha Bhawan, the BJD headquarters in Bhubaneswar. Several senior party leaders, MPs, and MLAs attended the event.
During the programme, Naveen Patnaik officially welcomed Sujata into the party fold. BJD Women's Wing president Snehangini Chhuria and the party's chief whip in the Odisha Assembly, Pramila Mallik, were present on the dais along with Sujata.
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