BJP Rules Out Tie-Up With BJD In Forthcoming Polls

Bhubaneswar: The State BJP on Wednesday made it clear that under no circumstances it will go for an alliance with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections scheduled for next year.

Replying to a question on whether there is any possibility of a tie-up with the BJD in the coming days, senior BJP leader and the party’s national secretary Suresh Pujari said the bitter memory of the severed ties with the ruling party in 2009 still lingers in his mind.

“The wound is still fresh and would never heal. Leave alone friendship, BJD does not even deserve the status of being an enemy. There is no question of an alliance with the ruling party. BJP would go it alone in the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2019,” Pujari told mediapersons here.

Talking about the release of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) list by the Centre on July 30, he said it is good to see that the BJD has extended its support to the NRC report for the larger interest of the country.

The final draft of the NRC list contains names of 28,983,677 citizens and around 40 lakh people have been left out of the list. The first draft of the NRC process was released at the midnight of December 31, 2017.