BJD Will Win 24 Of 28 Seats In 1st-Round Elections In Odisha: V K Pandian

Bhubaneswar: A day after Odisha bunked the national voter turnout dip and registered around 74% polling, BJD leader V K Pandian on Tuesday claimed that the ruling party will win at least 24 of the 28 Assembly seats, which went to polls on Monday.

“BJD is sweeping the elections whether it is first, second, third or fourth round. To be precise, in the first round, BJD is winning a minimum of 24 seats. Last time we had got 20 seats. This time, there is Naveen Patnaik’s wave, so we should be winning more than 24 seats out of 28 seats. In two seats, there is competition with Congress and in one with BJP,” he told ANI.

Pandian said the BJD will do much better in Lok Sabha than last time. “Lok Sabha is too huge to predict.”

Polling was held for four Lok Sabha seats, Berhampur, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur and Koraput along with 28 Assembly constituencies under them.

Also Read: 74% Voters Gets Inked In First-Round Elections To 4 LS & 28 Assembly Seats In Odisha

When asked about impact of roadshows by BJP top leaders, the BJD leader said: “We will get to know about that on June 4. The love and affection of people for BJD and its president Naveen Patnaik is very humbling. It gives us a lot of confidence. People coming and waiting for hours in the scorching heat give us the strength to fight for the cause of Odisha,” he said.

Pandian also mocked the BJP press meet on Monday, which was addressed by top 5 leaders of the state, and said that the party has again disappointed the people of Odisha by failing to name it CM candidate. “There were reports that the BJP might pick a woman as its CM candidate and we were waiting for them to come up with a face to challenge Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. It is unfortunate that these five leaders fought and could not reach a consensus.”

Also Read: Odisha BJP ‘Top 5’ Show Unity, Attack Naveen On Deepfake, Kandhamal Seer Murder, Puri Project

“They proved yesterday that their remote control will be with Delhi. Their accountability, and commitment will be for their high command in Delhi and not for the people of Odisha. They will be controlled by Delhi like the Congress government. If they are really serious about doing something for Odisha, they should get out of this Congress mentality of imposing a CM candidate. They have been harping about 24-year anti-incumbency against Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government, but have failed to put up a fresh CM for Odisha to make a choice.”

The BJD leader asserted that the fight has become one-sided and on the other side, there are only false allegations and misinformation. “What Baijayant Panda told about the CM was scandalous. He has been spreading rumours about the CM’s health since 2014-15. The people Odisha gave him a befitting reply in the last election when he lost the Kendrapada seat by a huge margin. He is again speaking about deep fakes and will face the same fate with a bigger loss margin,” he added.

Also Read: BJP Will Break Into 4 Parts In Odisha If Its CM Face Is Declared, Says BJD