Gamang is Orissa CM

Bhubaneswar, Feb 15: Former Union minister and eight-time Lok Sabha MP Giridhar Gamang will be the next chief minister of Orissa. He has been nominated by the Congress high command as the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party CLP. The CLP which met here in the evening endorsed the decision of the high command. Former chief minister and senior leader Nandini Satpathy was the sole dissenting voice at the meeting. She walked out from the meeting protesting against imposition of a leader from outside the CLP.

That Gamang had been hand picked by the high command for the top post in the state became clear when he was asked to rush to Bhubaneswar on Monday by party chief Sonia Gandhi.