Aparajita Sarangi announces joining BJP

Bhubaneswar: Ending all speculations, former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi on Thursday announced that she would join the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

Sarangi, who recently took voluntary retirement, will formally join the saffron party on November 27 in New Delhi. She is expected to contest the 2019 elections from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat or Bhubaneswar central assembly constituency.

Sarangi, a 1994 batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer, has served as commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) from 2006 to 2009. She had also become a popular face as the School & Mass Education Secretary in the state.

The former bureaucrat was on central deputation since 2013 and serving as joint secretary (MGNREGA), Ministry of Rural Development. She was supposed to return to Odisha in October after her five-year tenure on central deputation ended in August. However, she opted for voluntary retirement.