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Giridhar Gomango takes over from Patnaik

Former Union minister of state for communications Giridhar Gomango was tonight elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Orissa. He will succeed Janaki Ballab Patnaik as chief minister.

The CLP, which first met at 7pm IST, unanimously adopted a resolution authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to choose Patnaik's successor.

When the meeting resumed at 9.30pm, the outgoing chief minister proposed that Gomango be elected the new leader. Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee president Hemananda Biswal, who was also in the race, seconded the proposal.

The meeting then endorsed Gomango as the new leader.

Congress general secretaries Pranab Mukherjee and Madhavrao Scindia later said the CLP accepted Gomango unanimously.

Asked why former chief minister Nandini Satpathy walked out of the meeting, Patnaik merely said there was no opposition from the members at the meeting.

Earlier, Satpathy had told reporters she was unhappy with the procedure for the election.

Scindia however, denied that she expressed displeasure at the meeting. He said the election process was smooth and everybody accepted it when Patnaik proposed Gomango's name.

Gomango thanked Gandhi for choosing him to be the new CLP leader.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Congress MLAs for unanimously electing him their leader.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Gomango rushes to Bhubaneswar

The Christian attacks row

The Orissa state page

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