BJD-BJP Alliance On? Saffron Leaders Fly To Delhi, Naveen Patnaik Convenes Meeting With Party Seniors

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is witnessing a flurry of political activities within 24 hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state, triggering speculation about a possible BJD-BJP alliance ahead of the twin elections again.

Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal, secretaries and members of core committee left for Delhi on Tuesday for an important meeting with the central leadership at 5 pm. “There will be a discussion on the party’s election strategy for Odisha,” Samal told reporters.

BJP national president JP Nadda, senior leader and Home Minister Amit Shah, party vice-president Baijayant Panda, party Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal, election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, co-in-charge Lata Usendi will be present. Other senior leaders of the party from Odisha, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Sambit Patra, Manas Mohanty, and Jual Oram, are also expected to attend the meeting during which the blueprint for the upcoming polls will be prepared, sources said.

It is pertinent to mention here that no names from Odisha found place in the first list of 195 candidates released by the BJP on March 2 for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, BJD president Naveen Patnaik has convened a meeting of senior party leaders, including organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, vice president Prasanna Acharya, AU Singhdeo, Debi Mishra and Sanjay Das Burma, at Naveen Niwas here at 3.30 pm. Raja Swain, Tukuni Sahu, Pradip Amat, Susanta Rout, Ashok Panda, Prafulla Mallick, Jagannath Saraka, Manas Mangaraj, Pratap Deb, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pranab Balabantray, and Arun Sahoo are also expected to attend the meeting.

Those out of the town have been asked to return to the city and mark their presence, the sources added.

Notably, political circles here have been abuzz with the possibility of an alliance between the two parties for quite some time. Last week, leaders of both BJP and BJD in the state, however, vehemently denied any electoral tie-up ahead of the elections while stating that they will contest the polls on their own strength.

Presence of Naveen at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event at Chandikhole on Tuesday, coinciding with the birth anniversary of legendary leader Biju Patnaik, in whose memory BJD was founded, again had tongues wagging about the possible alliance. While the day saw no such announcement, Modi’s silence on Naveen’s rule at a rally there even as he targeted the Congress and the INDIA alliance over corruption, scams, governance and “parivarvad” (dynastic rule), kept the speculation alive.

PM Modi had also refrained from attacking Naveen or BJD while later addressing a public meeting at Remed Ground in Sambalpur on February 3.

Despite the perceived rivalry between BJP and BJD in the state, the central leadership has maintained a more conciliatory tone that gives a sense of closeness between the two. Modi had addressed Naveen as ‘mitra’ during the Sambalpur event, and referred to him as ‘popular CM’ at Chandikhole. Naveen had also praised Modi on both occasions.