Baijayant Jay Panda who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last week has been appointed as party’s vice-president (VP) and spokesperson on Friday, reports Indian Express.

Panda who owns an Odisha-based media company quit Biju Janata Dal (BJD) last year, and also resigned his Lok Sabha membership.

BJP President Amit Shah’s move to appoint him as the VP signals party’s resolve to capture Odisha in upcoming Lok Sabha election polls. The three recent losses for BJP in Hindi heartland- Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan saw their respective former chief ministers Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje being appointed as VPs of the party.

With the assembly polls in Odisha to be conducted right alongside the Lok Sabha polls, BJP has been working hard to improve its tally in the state. While it won only one out of the 21 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, party is targeting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its leader Naveen Patnaik who have been in power for two decades.

“There will be 1,200 small public meetings that will try to expose the failures of the Patnaik government. He was in power for almost two decades. If he could not do anything so far, he will never be able to do anything. That would be our message,” BJP general secretary in-charge of Odisha Arun Singh said.

He also added the party will be taking out Vijay Sankalp Yatras from all 147 Assembly constituencies for a week from Sunday.

Also: [Watch] Baijayant Jay Panda Explains The Crisis In Odisha And How To Fix It