Bhubaneswar: The BJP legislature party of Odisha will hold a meeting on Tuesday to elect its leader and the state’s new Chief Minister, who will take oath the next day.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupendra Yadav have been appointed as observers to oversee the selection of the new CM.
With the chance of Dharmendra Pradhan, who won from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, becoming the next chief minister of the state seemingly bleak after his induction into the Modi 3.0 government, the focus is now on Brajarajnagar MLA-elect Suresh Pujari, who returned from New Delhi on Monday. State BJP president Manmohan Samal is also being considered as one of the frontrunners for the top post, even though he lost his election from the Chandabali Assembly seat by a narrow margin of 1,916 votes.
Also Read: Odisha CM Choice Suspense Lingers: Suresh, Manmohan Frontrunners; Deputy CM Formula Possible
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and ex-Lieutenant Governor of J&K Girish Murmu, who served as Narendra Modi’s former principal secretary when he was the Gujarat CM, is also among the names doing the rounds.
The possible pick of a dark horse is also very much on the cards, confided party sources.
The BJP has the track record of springing surprises in picking chief ministers. In the recent past, it humbled many winners who considered themselves to be ‘CM material’ by handing over the reins to their much younger colleagues in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
In Odisha, the saffron party put up an impressive performance in the Assembly polls and secured a majority by winning 78 of 147 seats.
According to sources, the CM-designate would first visit the Jagannath temple in Puri. The BJP will reopen all the four gates of the temple, fulfilling its poll promise. The gates have been closed since the COVID pandemic.
The new BJP government is scheduled to be sworn-in on June 12 at 4.45 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Bhubaneswar at 2.10 pm and proceed to Raj Bhavan from the airport. He will reach Janata Maidan later to attend the oath-taking ceremony. The party has proposed to conduct PM’s roadshow in Bhubaneswar before the swearing-in ceremony.
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