Mumbai, June 4: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) may form government in Odisha for the first time as the party is enjoying a comfortable lead in early trends of Odisha assembly election result 2024. According to the latest figures from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the BJP has won four seats and is ahead on 76. On the other hand, the ruling party of the state, Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD), has won one seat and is ahead on 48, falling far behind the majority.

As per the early trends, it seems the BJP may easily form its government in Odisha, ending the two-decade rule of BJD President Naveen Patnaik. Having been in power for 24 years, the anti-incumbency factor may have helped the BJP to wrest BJD's chair. Now, the BJP has a name as the new CM of Odisha. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP Odisha Chief Manmohan Samal, and the Leader of the Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra are in the race to be the next chief minister of Odisha. It would be interesting to see who becomes the new Odisha CM. Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 Results: BJP Leads On 25 Seats, BJD Ahead on 11 As per Latest Trends.

Who Will Be the New Odisha CM

Dharmendra Pradhan

BJP may pick Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the new Odisha CM. Pradhan was leading from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat by over 1 lakh votes as vote counting for LS polls results is underway. He is the Cabinet Minister for Education, Skill Development, and Entrepreneurship in the Indian government. He represents Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha and was previously a member of the 14th Lok Sabha. As the former Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Pradhan introduced several significant reforms and initiatives, such as PAHAL, the world's largest Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme.

Manmohan Samal

Manmohan Samal is the Odisha BJP chief who is leading the Chandabali seat in the Odisha assembly election. He is up against BJD candidate Byomokesh Ray. In the 2019 Odisha assembly election, Ray defeated Samal by a narrow margin. As a BJP state chief, Samal played an instrumental role in strengthening the party's roots in Odisha. Odisha Assembly Elections Results 2024 Live News Updates: BJP Inches Closer to Majority Mark, BJD Trails Behind.

Jayanarayan Mishra

BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra may be picked up as the new Odisha CM as he has been the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly since 2022. Jayanarayan Mishra has once again defended his Sambalpur seat in the Odisha assembly election result 2024. In the 2019 Odisha Assembly elections, Mishra won in this seat, defeating Dr Raseswari Panigrahi of BJD by a margin of 4380 votes, which was 3.4% of the total votes cast for the seat. BJP had a vote share of 44.53% in 2019 in this seat.

However, seeing how the BJP surprised everyone by picking relatively new faces as the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh after the 2023 assembly elections, the party may use this formula for Odisha as well. Now, all eyes will be on who becomes the first BJP Chief Minister of Odisha.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2024 05:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).