Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal is all set to be re-elected as he is the only candidate to have filed nomination for the post on Monday. A formal announcement would be made on Tuesday.
“BJP president JP Nadda Ji had assigned me the task of observer (Pravari) for the party’s elections in Odisha. I have received 32 nominations for the party’s national council member and one for the state president,” said party’s central observer Sanjay Jaiswal.
The election process involves 273 delegates from 37 organisational districts, including state council members, district presidents, and elected public representatives such as two Lok Sabha MPs, one Rajya Sabha MP, and five MLAs.
This will be Samal’s third term as the state BJP president. He previously held the post from 1999 to 2004, and was appointed again in March 2023. A grassroots leader with deep roots in Odisha’s coastal Bhadrak district, Samal’s political journey is marked by organisational acumen.
The 66-year-old’s political career began with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), when he became president of the students union of Bhadrak College in 1979. He soon rose through the BJP’s ranks. In April 2000, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, representing Odisha, and later resigned in 2004 after winning the Odisha Legislative Assembly election from the Dhamnagar constituency in Bhadrak. During the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-BJP coalition government (2004–2008), Samal served as the minister of revenue and food supplies and consumer welfare. However, his tenure as minister ended in December 2008 when he resigned amid allegations of involvement in a sex scandal.
{{/usCountry}}The 66-year-old’s political career began with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), when he became president of the students union of Bhadrak College in 1979. He soon rose through the BJP’s ranks. In April 2000, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, representing Odisha, and later resigned in 2004 after winning the Odisha Legislative Assembly election from the Dhamnagar constituency in Bhadrak. During the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-BJP coalition government (2004–2008), Samal served as the minister of revenue and food supplies and consumer welfare. However, his tenure as minister ended in December 2008 when he resigned amid allegations of involvement in a sex scandal.
{{/usCountry}}Despite electoral setbacks after 2008, including losses in the Chandabali constituency, Samal’s influence within the BJP remained strong. His leadership was pivotal in the BJP’s 2022 Dhamnagar by-election victory, which broke the BJD’s undefeated bypoll streak since 2009.
Samal is widely credited with steering the party to a historic victory in the 2024 Odisha Assembly elections, ending the BJD’s 24-year reign and enabling the BJP to form its first-ever government in the state. However, he himself lost the Assembly election from the Chandabali constituency in Bhadrak district.
It was Samal, who, ahead of the assembly and Lok Sabha polls last year, argued against an alliance with the BJD. The alliance talks between BJD, spearheaded by IAS officer-turned-politician and Naveen Patnaik’s closest confidant VK Pandian, and Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was about to be sealed when Samal convinced the party central leadership that the party rank and file were against it. Samal managed to convince the central leadership that by allying with the BJD, the party would unnecessarily be shouldering the BJD’s anti-incumbency while sacrificing the electoral chances of many BJP leaders.