Bhubaneswar, Nov. 5: The BJP is searching for a consensus candidate for the post of state president, elections to which are due soon.

Outgoing state president Juel Oram, who owned up moral responsibility for the defeat of party candidate Sahadeb Xaxa in the recent Assembly bypoll in Talsara, said he would not seek re-election.

Under the organisational poll schedule, nomination papers for the post of state unit president will be received on the morning of November 7 and the plea for withdrawal would be entertained in the afternoon. In case of necessity, there will be voting the next day.

However, party insiders ruled out the possibility of any contest. BJP Mahila Morcha president Karuna Shukla and party general secretary in charge of Orissa Vinay Katiyar would attend as observers.

Top sources said state general secretaries Suresh Pujari and Rajkishore Das, former party MP Anadi Sahu and BJP Yuva Morcha national president and party MP Dharmendra Pradhan are in the race. However, Pujari and Sahu have emerged frontrunners.

Senior party MP M.A. Kharavela Swain was initially touted as a serious contender for the post. But Swain opted out as he has his eyes set on bigger things. Swain is also in charge of the Northeast and the post of deputy chief whip of the BJP parliamentary party. “I am not keen to contest,” Swain said from Agartala.

Though both Sahu and Pujari fancy their chances for the top post, sources said the latter had the edge as he enjoys the backing of the RSS. “In the current scheme of things, the RSS calls the shots. Though Sahu is not disliked by RSS, he does not enjoy the support,” said a party source.

But Pujari is a lacklustre politician and has espoused the cause of carving out a separate Koshal state from Orissa, much to the embarrassment of party leaders.

During the last 26 years of the BJP’s history, five leaders — industries minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, former Union minister Debendra Pradhan, former minister and party MLA Bimbadhar Kuanr, revenue minister Manmohan Samal and former Union minister Juel Oram — have headed the state unit.

But there was an open contest in 1997 when Oram fought Harichandan. In 2000, Kharavela Swain withdrew from the contest against Samal at the last minute following pressure from the top.