With Dharmendra Pradhan taking oath as Union Minister, Suresh Pujari now tops the list of contenders’ for Odisha CM
Bhubaneswar: Date, venue and list of guests for historic oath taking ceremony of BJP’s first Odisha Chief Minster have been finalized; however, the CM candidate has not been selected by the saffron party. Names of several party leaders is doing buzz. It was suspected that Sambalpur Lok Sabha MP Dharmendra Pradhan is on the top of the race for the CM, but today he took oath as the Union Cabinet Minister along with Jual Oram and Ashwini Vaishnaw of the state.
With Pradhan taking oath as the Union Minister, now Brajarajnagar MLA Suresh Pujari tops the list of contenders’ for Odisha CM. Speculation are ripe over his CM candidature as the central leadership have been reportedly having discussion with him in Delhi since yesterday.
Pujari, though did not say much about his visit, but confirmed that he is in Delhi. Therefore, it is all most true that he will own the chair of CM. Moreover, State BJP chief Manmohan Samal, after his return from the national capital city, clarified that he is not in the race for CM.
Notably, Suresh Pujari won the election from the Brajarajnagar with a margin of 26789 votes. He defeated Alaka Mohanty of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after getting 82,199 votes. He was also the MP of Bargarh from 2019 to 2024 and is the former state party president.
Pujari, who started his political career as a student, also has a vast experience in politics as he was the in-charge of BJP’s West Bengal unit.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Board today appointed Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupendra Yadav as observers for election of the leader of BJP Legislative Party in Odisha.
The first BJP CM of Odisha will take oath at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar on June 12 in the presence of several dignitaries including PM Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah.
