BHUBANESWAR: Even as it is certain that BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik will be the next Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, a role which he will play for the first time in his long political career, the party is yet to decide the name of his deputy in the House to manage the day-to-day affairs.
Though a majority of the senior leaders of BJD have lost the Assembly election, some withstood the saffron surge and were elected to the House. Sources said one of them will be elected as the deputy of the party supremo. The meeting of the BJD legislature party, where Naveen will be elected as the leader, is likely to be held next week.
Senior BJD leaders who have been elected include former ministers Prasanna Acharya (Rairakhol), Ranendra Pratap Swain (Athagarh), Arun Sahu (Nayagarh) and Pratap Deb (Aul). Sources said one of these leaders is likely to be handed over the charge to run the party in the Assembly with 51 BJD members. The frontrunner for the deputy post is Acharya who is the senior most among these leaders.
Though there is no official post of the deputy leader, a similar arrangement was made when late JB Patnaik was the LoP from 2004 to 2009. Veteran Congress leader Narasingha Mishra was the deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) during the period.