Former Jharkhand chief minister and BJP national vice-president Raghubar Das’s appointment as Odisha’s 26th governor is being seen as a move to balance internecine power struggle in the saffron party ahead of next year’s parliamentary and Assembly polls.

A Ranchi-based senior BJP leader and a former cabinet minister during Das’s tenure as chief minister (2014-19), admitted that the nomination on Wednesday was “unexpected”.

“We knew that Raghubar ji had the blessing of Amit Shah ji and was consulted in matters of state political issues, especially after the nomination of Chandankiyari MLA Amar Kumar Bauri as BJP legislative party leader and Mandu MLA J.P. Patel party chief whip in the Assembly. Both were close to Raghubar Das and were brought from other parties (Amar Bauri from JVM and J.P. Patel from JMM) by Raghubar Das to BJP. However, this news was unexpected. It has cleared the deck for party chief Babulal Marandi to have a free hand in taking the party’s decision without any interference with Raghubar ji being sidelined from active state politics,” the leader said. He admitted that BJP’s state unit was divided into three centres — Arjun Munda, Raghubar Das and Babulal Marandi.