BHUBANESWAR: Despite three meetings of the BJP core committee, the party seems to be still far from reaching consensus on its new state president.
The third high-level meeting attended by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, two deputy chief ministers KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida along with national general secretary Tarun Chugh and party’s state co-in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar on Monday too failed to break the deadlock.
Emerging from the five-hour-long deliberations at the party office, Chugh told mediapersons that the process of consultation is still on and name of the new president will be announced soon. “We had elaborate discussions on the issue and took suggestions of all the members. We will convey their views to the central leadership,” Chugh said.
Sources aware of the developments in the meeting said discussions were held on issues pertaining to selection of state party president, political appointment to boards and corporations of state government undertakings, cooperative institutions and revival of state and district planning boards.
The sources, however, said not much was expected from the meeting as several top leaders were absent. “It was for the third time that the core committee met and was unable to reach any conclusion. Such meetings without the presence of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and state in-charge Sunil Bansal are meaningless. Nothing concrete will emerge in their absence,” said a party leader.
While the incumbent president Manmohan Samal and state BJP vice-president Golak Mohapatra are said to be frontrunners for the post of president, two more names were reportedly discussed at the meeting. Bargarh MP Pradeep Purohit and state vice-president Jatin Mohanty are stated have joined the race for the top organisational post.
“Entry of Purohit and Mohanty has made it more difficult for the core committee to make a choice. It will be left to the central committee of the party to take a call,” said another leader.
In all possibility, another meeting of the core committee will be held next week. Efforts will be made to ensure the presence of Pradhan and Bansal in the meeting to give a final shape to all unresolved issues, the sources added.
Tomar told mediapersons that organisational election is a process which involves a lot of consultation. “The central election committee of the party has not decided a date for election of state president in Odisha. The process will be completed after election date is fixed for the state,” he said.
Apart from Samal, Revenue minister Suresh Pujari, organising secretary Manas Mohanty and former party president Samir Mohanty were part of the deliberations.