Bhubaneswar: The major political parties from the state have jumped onto the bandwagon to search for their best poster boys who can fight the elections under their banner and triumph over the prestigious seat vacated by the Chief Minister.
While many of them have zeroed in on their final lists of their best picks, the formal announcements of the party candidates are all set to be done sooner. While the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has planned to name the contestant by Monday, other parties are looking to buy for some more time. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left the last call to the party heads at the national capital. The saffron party, buoyed by the increased success rate in the state recently, has high hopes to counter the grip of the regional party.
BJD, Sunday, said that a report on the right candidate will be submitted to the BJD supremo and the CM Naveen Patnaik by Monday. “A committee of the party will analyse the candidature of different partymen and the same will be submitted to the Chief Minister soon. We are taking the by-elections seriously. Soon after our government was formed we ensured that we fulfil the promises we made in the elections for Bijepur,” said BJD leader Sanjay Das Burma.
The BJP on the other hand is also trying their best to made their presence felt in the region. Party State President Basant Panda said, “The name of the candidate from our party will be finalised by the time of nomination. We are all set to send our recommendations to the party high command and they will discuss the names of the right candidate. We are surely going to win the seat there.”
The Congress party which had seen poll debacles in the recent elections said that a committee of the party will brainstorm on the candidates soon. “A committee has been formed under the chairmanship of senior leader Narasingha Mishra. The committee will discuss the possible names and the final names will be sorted out,” OPCC President Niranjan Patnaik said.