Hectic parleys underway to select next Odisha CM; Pradhan frontrunner, but there can be dark horses

New Delhi: Two days after Biju Janata Dal’s rout in Odisha, heavy discussions are underway to select the next Chief Minister, but a clearer picture may emerge only after the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Friday.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, bureaucrat-turned-politician Aparajita Sarangi, former central minister Pratap Sarangi, and BJP national vice president Baijayant (Jay) Panda’s names are being speculated as possible options, but there can be dark horses like Brajrajnagar MLA Suresh Pujari, Sambalpur MLA Jayanarayan Mishra and giant-slayer Laxman Bag, who defeated the outgoing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Kantabanji.

Since the last two days, the name of Girish Murmu - a Gujarat cadre IAS officer and Comptroller and Auditor General of India - is also doing the rounds. But it is not clear if Murmu, who is not a primary BJP member, will be eligible as there may be a cooling-off period once he hangs his boot as the CAG.A

sked whether Pradhan was the frontrunner for the CM’s post, a senior BJP leader in Delhi said it is too early to comment on the same and a decision would be taken after the parliamentary party meeting. In Bhubaneswar, state BJP president Manmohan Samal echoed the same.

Pradhan, who won from the Sambalpur parliamentary constituency in western Odisha after contesting an election after 15 years, is the most prominent BJP leader from the state and widely speculated as the replacement of Naveen 'Babu' who has already submitted his resignation.

While Aparajita, a former bureaucrat, is well regarded within the party for her administrative experience, a key factor that may go against her is that she is not an Odia by birth. The saffron party, that ran a high-voltage poll campaign claiming it would install an Odia as the Chief Minister, may not favour Aparajita, who is an Odisha 'bahu' and not a 'beti'.

Suresh Pujari, a former Lok Sabha MP from Bargarh, is a national secretary and one of the senior leaders with a large following. Another possibility is Balasore MP Pratap Sarangi who is close to the RSS and has earned fame because of his simple lifestyle. He served as a minister of states in the second NDA government, but was dropped two years later.

If the BJP top brass decides to retain Pradhan in Delhi for the benefit of the coalition, then luck might also favour Jayanarayan Mishra, a senior leader from western Odisha where BJP has a strong presence.