Bhubaneswar: Odisha BJP Thursday started its organisational elections with the appointment of returning officer.

Former union minister and party’s national returning officer Radha Mohan Singh has appointed party State general secretary Rajani Patel as returning officer and spokesperson Sudipta Ray as the assistant returning officer for the BJP State organisational election.

The party’s membership drive will be completed on August 22. Then the elections to the Mandal office bearers will begin. BJP has made each of the 753 Zilla Parisad zones as its Mandal. The Mandal committee will elect the district presidents(Zilla Sabhapati). There are 36 BJP districts in the State. The district presidents and the State Council Members will elect a new president by November, 2019.

Last time, BJP had claimed that it had inducted 33 lakh members. Bijaya Mohapatra and Pratap Sarangi made the Satyapana about the number of members. This time the party has targeted to induct 50 lakh members. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan had launched the membership drive. The convenor of BJP’s national membership drive and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan gave a boost to the membership drive by visiting the state last week.

BJP MP from Kalahandi is the party’s State president in Odisha.