BHUBANESWAR: As many within the BJP’s state unit are yet to come to terms with the sudden change of guard with the replacement of incumbent party president Samir Mohanty by an old-school leader like Manmohan Samal, the message sent out by the central leadership is loud and clear.
With speculations flying thick and fast over the ruling BJD advancing Assembly polls (the tenure of the state government ends on June 24, 2024), there is no place for complacency when it comes to take on a formidable political force in power for five terms consecutively.
Odisha is among three poll-bound states where the state presidents of the party were changed and new appointees were asked to take charge with immediate effect. Sources said, the selection of Samal to steer the party’s electoral strategy is mainly for three reasons.
The central leadership was quite unhappy with the miserable performance of the BJP in the rural and urban local body polls. The repeated defeat of the party at the hands of the BJD in all by-elections was the other reason. The win of Dhamnagar bypoll is the only saving grace and the credit goes to Samal who played a crucial role in ensuring the victory of Surayabanshi Suraj.
Even after increasing its voting percentage to 39 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party’s debacle in panchayat and civic bodies elections in 2022 was not acceptable. The primary reason of the party’s defeat in all elections after 2019 was attributed to weak organisation, lack of cohesion and growing factionalism. “It came to the notice of the central party observers during the Padampur by-election that booth committees were non-existent in most of the places across three blocks under the constituency,” said a senior party leader.
The third thing that went in favour of Samal is the caste matrix. The appointment of Samal was also a move to send out a message to the other backward class (OBC) population, which constitute over half of the state’s population, the sources said.
A hard taskmaster and well-versed in organisational matters, Samal has been given the responsibility with a high hope that he can efficiently lead the party to victory which has been eluding since 2009. A man of perseverance and a good listener, the former minister who had the opportunity to lead the party twice as president does not promote groupism and has the rare leadership quality to carry all factions together, sources added.