With the term of Jual Oram as BJP State unit president coming to an end in December

BHUBANESWAR: With the term of Jual Oram as BJP State unit president coming to an end in December, the party is fully geared up to hold the organisational election. Golak Mohapatra has been appointed as election in-charge.

The party has initiated membership drive which will continue till September. Election to the local committee at gram panchayat level is likely to start from October and formation of the panchayat-level committees should be completed by October-end. Election to the block committees will start from November 1 and formation of the block committees is expected to be over by November 15.

The third phase election will be for the district committees. Election for district presidents and State council members will start from mid-November and the process will be completed by the end of that month.

If everything goes as per the schedule, election of the State president will be completed by the year-end, sources in the party said.

Oram’s third term was mired in controversy with a large section of the party revolting against his leadership. He was earlier elected twice as the party president in 1997 and 2004.

A powerful section of the party recently met the national party president Nitin Gadkari and other senior national leaders in Delhi and pressed for Oram’s ouster for the party’s poor performance in panchayat elections and the two bye-elections to the Assembly. Several senior leaders of the party including all the sitting MLAs also boycotted the recent State executive committee meeting as a mark of protest to the leadership of Ora