Naveen Patnaik, who ruled Odisha uninterruptedly for 24 years, on Wednesday quietly went to the Governor House and tendered his resignation following the shocking defeat at the hands of the BJP in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Naveen met governor Raghubar Das, spent a few minutes with him, tendered his resignation and left the Raj Bhavan.

The BJD leaders met Naveen at Naveen Niwas. However, no discussion was held regarding the poll results. In the 147-seat Assembly, the BJD won 51 seats while the BJP bagged 78 seats, crossing the 74-seat majority mark. Naveen himself lost by over a margin of 16,000 votes to the BJP in Kantabanji, the second Assembly seat he was contesting from besides his traditional seat of Hinjili in Ganjam district, which he retained.

While the Independents won three seats and the Congress bagged 14 seats, the CPM secured one seat — Bonai in Sundergarh district. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD was completely routed and failed to win a single seat out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won 20 seats, and the Congress maintained its supremacy in the tribal-dominated Koraput district. Its candidate, Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, won the Lok Sabha seat for the second consecutive time.

Now speculation is rife about who will be the next chief minister of Odisha.

The BJP leaders maintained that the parliamentary board would decide the issue. Jaynarayan Mishra, the senior BJP leader and leader of Opposition in the state Assembly who won the Sambalpur Assembly seat, said: “We are thankful to the people of Odisha for reposing their faith in the BJP. Our parliamentary board will decide who will be the chief minister. However, we will fulfil all the promises that we have made in our manifesto.”

Mishra, too, is a contender for the chief minister’s post. Besides Mishra, many others, including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and former BJP state president Suresh Pujari, who won the Brajaraj Nagar assembly seat in Jharsuguda district, are strong contenders for the chief minister’s post.

State party president Manmohan Samal, who lost the election, said: “The parliamentary board will take a call on the issue. The right decision will be taken at the right moment. The candidate for the post of chief minister will be decided by the criteria set by the Prime Minister. The candidate must be an Odia and uphold the culture and tradition of the state.”

Amid the discussion on who would be the next chief minister, comptroller and auditor-general of India and former lieutenant governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Girish Chandra Murmu’s name has entered the list of contenders for chief ministership of Odisha. There is speculation that he may be the Prime Minister’s choice. “The Prime Minister is known to spring surprises,” a political analyst commented.

Another major contender for the chief ministerial candidate is former minister K.V. Singh Deo. He won the Patanagarh Assembly seat in Bolangir by defeating rival BJD candidate Saroj Kumar Meher. “The Prime Minister, during his election campaign in Odisha, announced that a new chief minister would sworn in on June 10. We hope the name of the chief minister’s candidate will be announced by June 9,” said a senior
BJP leader.

Sources said that all the elected MLAs are likely to go to Delhi prior to the announcement of the chief minister’s name. A meeting of the leaders will be held before the Parliamentary Board takes a final call on the issue of the chief minister. “All efforts will be made to reach a consensus on the issue,” said the leader.