Today in Politics: Odisha to get new CM as BJP Legislature Party meets

The BJP Legislature Party in Odisha will meet on Tuesday to elect its leader and the state’s new Chief Minister. The new government will take oath the following day, according to a senior party leader. The BJP on June 4 secured a majority by winning 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly. It also bagged 20 of 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

State BJP president Manmohan Samal is considered one of the leading frontrunners for the CM’s post, even though he lost his election from the Chandabali Assembly seat with a narrow margin of 1,916 votes. According to Sujit Bisoyi, former state BJP chief Suresh Pujari and Girish Murmu, who served as Narendra Modi’s former principal secretary when he was the Gujarat CM, are also among the names doing the rounds. But there is also a possibility of the BJP leadership springing a surprise as it had done in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year by announcing CMs whose names had not been anticipated by political experts.

The BJP has appointed Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupendra Yadav to oversee the selection of the new CM. The party has proposed to conduct Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Bhubaneswar before the swearing-in ceremony.

Meanwhile, in his first visit to Uttar Pradesh since the Lok Sabha election results, Congress leader and Rae Bareli MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, his sister, will be in Rae Bareli on Wednesday to thank the voters of Rae Bareli and neighbouring Amethi. The Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime Gandhi family associate, defeated former Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi.

Sources said Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who is a Rae Bareli MP, is also likely to join Rahul and Priyanka during