New Delhi: Aparajita Sarangi, an Odisha-cadre IAS officer, who recently took voluntary retirement, joined the Bharatiya Janta Party on Tuesday.

Sarangi joined the saffron party in the presence of BJP president Amit Shah. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP's Odisha chief Basant Panda were also present on the occasion.

The 1994 batch IAS officer served as the Joint Secretary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under the Ministry of Rural Development and completed her tenure in August this year.