Ex-Aditya Birla Group HR Head Santrupt Misra joins BJD, may get Rajya Sabha nomination

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the twin elections in Odisha, corporate honcho Santrupt Misra joined Biju Janata Dal (BJD) at Naveen Niwas here on Friday. Later, the Chief Minister appointed Misra as national spokesperson of the party.

There has been buzz about Misra ever since he took early retirement from Aditya Birla Group, the conglomerate where he worked for more than 27 years, on December 28. Welcoming him to the party, Naveen said: “He left an important corporate job to help us in our good work. We will decide..what position he will stand..”.

5T Chairman V K Pandian and other senior party leaders, including Pranab Prakash Das, Pratap Deb and Snehangini Chhuria, were present.

There are speculation that the party may nominate him to Rajya Sabha or field him from a Lok Sabha constituency in the forthcoming polls. When asked about the possibility of getting a Rajya Sabha ticket from the state, he said, “I formally joined the BJD after being inspired by CM Naveen Patnaik’s ideology, personality and working style. I have spent more than 27 years in corporate sector. I will take up whatever responsibility is assigned to me by the BJD supremo and work for strengthening the party with senior leaders.”

He further that he will work for the people of Odisha and strengthen the party with support of other senior party leaders. “After working many years outside the country, I had wished to return to Odisha and serve people here,” he added.

A native of Puri, Misra was the Global Director of Human Resources as well as Group Director of Birla Carbon and Director of Chemicals.

According to reports, he was instrumental in shaping employee policies in the Aditya Birla Group and had also mentored the next generation of Birla scions—Aryaman Vikram Birla and Ananya Birla. It is said that Kumar Birla relied on Misra, who joined the Aditya Birla Group in 1996 as vice president of HR from Hindustan Unilever (HUL).

Misra has worked at the board level for over two decades as a Non-Executive Director and Executive Director in publicly listed companies, unlisted companies, and not-for-profit organisations in India and overseas. He is a director in several companies of the Aditya Birla Group including Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., Grasim, and Birla Carbon Thailand, which are listed companies.

Misra’s Linkedin profile reveals that he did his masters in Politics and also PhD in Public Administration from Utkal University in Bhubaneswar.