Bhubaneswar: The change of guard for the state unit of Bharatiay Janata Party (BJP) is expected to be completed by the end of the year as speculations are doing the rounds over the next leader of the party from the eastern state.
The national leadership of the saffron party claimed that the elections for the post would be over by the end of December 2019. Odisha-in-charge of the party Arun Singh said that the BJP believed in internal party democracy and the leader would be chosen by the state leaders based on voting.
“The district presidents and State Council members choose the state president as voters. Only they will decide who would be the next leader. We are the only party which has the internal democracy. It cannot be revealed now as to who will be the next head. The voting of the district presidents and State Council members will be over before this year end,” he said.
Former BJP state president Manmohan Samal, while elaborating on the election, said that the election of the next leaders would be finalised after the voting process is over.
There is a lot of interest involved in the issue of next Odisha chief of the BJP as the party is slowly gaining momentum in terms of their increased representation in Parliament and Assembly this time. The national leadership with two Union ministers from the party now also wants to make further inroads into the electoral map of the state.
Names of many candidates like Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Jual Oram, Manmohan Samal and incumbent state vice president of the party Samir Mohanty are doing the rounds.
If sources familiar with the development is to be believed, extension of the tenure of incumbent state BJP President Basanta Panda cannot be ruled out. Traditionally, the party has an approach of choosing leaders from western Odisha. This time, however, it will be interesting to see if the state leadership witnesses representation from other region of the state.