BJP set to choose Odisha CM today: Who are among the frontrunners?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top BJP leaders and the party Chief Ministers will attend the swearing-in event of the party’s first CM and his ministers to be held at the Janta Maidan in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

PM Modi is scheduled to hold a 1.5 km-long roadshow before reaching the swearing-in venue in order to thank the people for giving the first full majority to the BJP in the state.

The BJP brought to an end the five-term reign of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, which managed to win only 51 seats. In the simultaneous polls, the BJP also bagged 20 Lok Sabha seats out of 21 in the state.

Meanwhile, hectic parleys are continuing in the BJP camp over the selection of the CM as well as the composition of the new government.

While senior party leaders like Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram were considered to be the key names for the CM’s position earlier, they have now been inducted into the Modi-led NDA government 3.0. While Pradhan has been given the education portfolio again, Oram has been allocated the charge of the tribal affairs ministry.

State BJP president Manmohan Samal is considered one of the leading frontrunners for the CM’s post, even though he lost his own election from the Chandabali Assembly seat with a narrow margin of 1916 votes.

On the question of the party’s CM choice, Samal said that an Odia will be the CM. “The name will be unanimously decided in the presence of the central observers at the Legislature Party meeting. As state unit president, whatever was my duty, I have done with full sincerity. I took everyone along. I am sure the Parliamentary Board will decide an able person to lead the state,” he told reporters.

In April 2000, Samal got elected to the Rajya Sabha, but resigned from the Upper House in 2004 on being elected to the Odisha Assembly from Dhamnagar in Bhadrak.

Known to be a grassroots leader, Samal, 65, has the experience of handling various departments as he had served as a minister in the BJD-BJP alliance government, holding portfolios like revenue and food supplies and consumer welfare from 2004 to 2008.

Hailing from the coastal Odisha’s Bhadrak district, Samal had been active in politics since his student days and was also part of the ABVP, the RSS’ student wing. He has served as the state BJP president twice – first, during 1999-2004 and then entrusted again to head the organisation from March 2023.

Significantly, Samal was among the BJP leaders who were opposed to the alliance talks between the BJD and the BJP just ahead of these polls and persuaded his party’s central leadership to go to the polls alone. The BJP-BJD negotiations finally fell through, leading to the two former allies slugging it out in the polls.

There is also a strong buzz about the candidature of former state BJP chief Suresh Pujari for the CM’s post. A former MP, Pujari has been elected from the Brajarajnagar Assembly constituency in western Odisha by a huge margin. This is his maiden Assembly poll win.

A native of Sambalpur, Pujari, 64, is an advocate by profession. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Bargarh in 2019, before which he had tasted defeats five times in Assembly polls – thrice in Brajrajnagar and twice in Sambalpur.

“The Parliamentary Board of the party takes final decision in these matters. The parameter for selecting the CM is what the PM had said during his election campaign. A 24-carat pure Odia will be the CM of Odisha, who works for Odia asmita and culture,” Pujari told reporters. Odia asmita (pride) was the BJP’s plank in the current polls.

Pujari, who came to limelight as a firebrand student leader during the violent students’ movement in Sambalpur in 1980, was appointed the state BJP president in 2006. He hails from Odisha’s western region, which is traditionally considered a BJP stronghold.

There are speculations that the BJP may also consider Girish Murmu for the state’s top post. A former IAS officer of Gujarat-cadre, Murmu, 65, is a native of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. He had served as the principal secretary to Modi when he was the Gujarat CM. He has currently been serving as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India since August 2020.

Among other CM probables are senior leaders like Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda and Pratap Saragi, who have been elected to the Lok Sabha.

Senior MLA K V Singh Deo, who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Patnagarh, is also one of the CM aspirants. Singh Deo has now been elected for the sixth time from the Patnagarh seat. He had also served as a minister in the erstwhile BJD-BJP coalition government.