Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader Pratap Sarangi on Thursday said that it is the party’s parliamentary board that will decide the chief minister candidate for Odisha.
Replying to a question on the statement of his party colleague and Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, who had told the media that Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan would be the chief minister candidate for Odisha, Sarangi said either some central party leaders might have briefed him on this matter or it could be his personal opinion.
Asked whether he knows anything about this, Sarangi said “How can I say this? After all, I am not the private secretary to Jual.”
He further said that unlike the BJD, there is no dearth of leaders in the state BJP. “But I don’t want to name them,” he pointed out.
It may be mentioned that the Union Tribal minister in a statement on November 27 had said that Dharmendra is the chief minister candidate under whose leadership the party would contest the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.
Former Odisha-cadre IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi had joined the BJP in New Delhi the same day.
