Bhubaneshwar: Senior advocate of Orissa high court, Pitambar Acharya, on Friday was appointed as the new advocate general (AG) of Odisha.

The post was vacant after the previous AG, Ashok Parija, had resigned in the wake of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) losing the assembly election last month.

Acharya was Odisha Bharatiya Janata Party’s vice-president and spokesperson. He had unsuccessfully contested against former chief minister Naveen Patnaik from Hinjli assembly constituency in 2019. Acharya has been in politics since his student days and was the president of the Students’ Union at BJB College in the 1990s.

An LLB graduate from University Law College, Utkal University, Acharya also holds a master’s degree in Political Science.

He has had a long and successful stint as an advocate at the Orissa High Court for over three decades.