The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a historic win in the Odisha assembly polls, bagging 78 seats and unseating the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which got only 51. It will give the BJP a first taste of running a government on its own in the eastern state. BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik lost from the Kantabanji seat, somewhat like Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 Amethi parliamentary seat loss. Prime Minister Modi even started his victory speech, albeit with lower numbers than in 2014, with “Jai Jagannath”. As the excitement over the state wins settles and the alliance is stitched for the government in Delhi, the question everyone is asking is who would be the BJP’s first-ever chief minister in Odisha?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning had announced the date for the Odisha CM’s oath-taking as June 10. State BJP president Manmohan Samal said, “The parliamentary board will take a call on this. An Odia CM, who believes in Odisha’s s language and culture, will be sworn in on June 10.”
That suggests only four days are left before D-Day. While most of the leaders whose names are being discussed are MPs, it is not unusual for the BJP to give a parliamentarian a CM post as recently in Haryana Nayab Singh Saini was asked to take the job from Manohar Lal Khattar.
THE OBVIOUS
The most obvious face that is being discussed is union minister Dharmendra Pradhan who is probably the most influential Odisha leader of the current BJP and is also rumoured to be in line to be the next party president. Pradhan, who won from Sambalpur, enlarged BJP’s base in the state in the last decade of the Modi regime at the Centre and is close to union home minister Amit Shah.
Son of former union minister Debendra Pradhan, he easily fits the primary requirement from the cadres —being a true-blue Odia. In spite of Naveen Patnaik’s popularity for over two decades, one key criticism against him was that he wasn’t fluent in Odia; neither was his protege VK Pandian. Pradhan rose from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), became an MLA in 2000, and an MP in 2004. He has also worked as an election in-charge in Bihar and as an in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
“He can bring a wide range of experience while he enjoys the confidence of Amit ji. But as you know, these things are finally decided by the party keeping many factors in mind. In fact, we have seen particularly the favourites not making it in the past,” said a BJP source.
THE TRIBAL WARHORSE
While not as popular as Pradhan, another name in line to be the next Odisha CM is Jual Oram. He is a former union tribal affairs minister who, at 63, has age on his side like Pradhan. Oram is a five-time MP as well as a one-time MLA. Why is he called an old warhorse? He is one of the earliest members of the BJP in the state.
What else works for Oram? He is a self-made man with a tribal background. Born in a poor family in Sundargarh, Oram went on to get a diploma in electrical engineering, and work for a PSU but chose politics over his government job. He was made a tribal affairs minister in 1999 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
THE MAN WHOM MODI TRUSTS
If VK Pandian was a bureaucrat who had Patnaik’s ears, Odisha-born Girish Murmu is trusted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A former IAS officer, Murmu is the present Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG). The retired 1985-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has a long association with Modi. The 65-year-old career bureaucrat was principal secretary in Modi’s CMO in Gujarat. He also served in various capacities when Modi shifted base to New Delhi in 2014 after he became PM.
He brings administrative experience, knowledge of how the bureaucracy works, and an understanding of how to get it to work that makes him a hot favourite, along with PM Modi’s penchant for bureaucrats and technocrats heading ministries like the Railways. While in Delhi not many bet on his name, several BJP leaders in Odisha News18 spoke to seemed certain about him, unless Pradhan is the choice.
THE P-D-S FACTOR
Three more names are doing the rounds but not as widely as the above three. Together they are being called the P-D-S factor — Panda, Deo, and Sarangi.
Baijayant Jay Panda is a former BJD leader who switched to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While he could not win then, Panda snatched his home seat Kendrapara this time. He is known to be patient with the ability to listen. Panda’s wife owns OTV or Odisha Television Ltd. Right now, he is the BJP’s national vice president. He speaks fluent Odia — a primary ask this time to be the chief minister.
When asked who could get the job, Panda briefly said, “An Odia son or a daughter will be the CM, which was committed by the Prime Minister.”
Next on the list is a royal — KV Singh Deo. His USP? Being a member of the erstwhile Patna royal family. He is a five-time MLA from Patnagarh and also served as a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government. He has won the election time.
The ’S’ in P-D-S is a name that shocked all in the 2019 swearing-in ceremony when an elderly, very modestly dressed man went up to take oath to be part of Modi’s council of ministers. He is Pratap Sarangi. He too has retained his seat — Balasore. Sarangi decimates all ideas of a minister — lives in a small hut and has very few dresses. Though he was dropped during a reshuffle later, he made heads turn last time. If the Modi government wants to make a bold point in the face of Rahul Gandhi’s consistent allegations of crony capitalism, the PM may very well pick Sarangi as the next Odisha CM.
THE UNDERDOGS
But in this BJP, nothing is certain till it is certain. When a BJP leader was asked about the probable CM names, he said, “It is very logical. But all the SWOT analysis is on one side and the underdogs on another. Did you expect Raghubar Das to become Jharkhand CM in 2014? I did not. But here we are.” Das, an underdog, became the chief minister in December 2014, surprising many in the BJP. He is currently the governor of Odisha.
Similarly, non-Jat Manohar Lal Khattar was made the chief minister of Haryana in 2014. Even after the recent Rajasthan assembly election, a young Bhajan Lal Sharma was made the CM, seeing whose name on a chit, Vasundhara Raje’s reaction became viral on social media.
The point is, in Modi’s BJP, the underdogs too have a real chance at the top job.
