Former Chief Minister of Odisha, Dr Giridhar Gamang, has been unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Pradyumna Bal Jayanti Samaroh Committee.
On November 8, the Committee will celebrate the 92nd birth anniversary of visionary leader Shri Pradyumna Bal, Founder Editor of Pragativadi, Soul of KIIT & KISS, and an emblem of values-based politics & journalism.
Like every year, celebrations will take place on the premises of the Pragativadi office in Bhubaneswar on November 7th and 8th to mark Pradyumna Bal’s birth anniversary. This year, the event will be organised by a new committee led by Dr Gamang. Last year, the committee was chaired by the renowned Gandhian philanthropist and president of ‘Utkal Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi’, Smt. Krishna Mohanty.
Veteran politician, former Union Minister, and ex-Chief Minister Dr Giridhar Gamang expressed great pleasure in being elected as the chairman of the State-level Jayanti Committee of Pradyumna Bal, who was his close friend.
Dr. Gamang, a seasoned politician from the tribal community, has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Koraput nine times in a row, spanning from 1972 to 1999, and again from 2004 to 2009. He held ministerial positions in the government from the tenure of Indira Gandhi to that of P.V. Narasimha Rao, from 1985 to 1996.
Pradyumna Bal was first elected as MP from Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha in 1977. During this period, Dr Gamang also served as an MP. They shared a close relationship both before and after their respective elections.
It is noteworthy that during the state-wide Jayanthi Samaroh honoring Pragativadi’s founder Pradyumna Bal, held at Pragativadi’s premises, senior journalist Santosh Kumar Das served as the inaugural chairman. In the subsequent year, Mr Harishchandra Nanda Goswami, a senior journalist at ‘Pragativadi’ and the Betnoti representative of Mayurbhanj district, assumed the role of chairman for the Jayanthi Committee. Most recently, Smt Krishna Mohanty undertook these responsibilities last year.
