Odisha Assembly May Meet For The Last Time In September Before ‘Early’ Polls

Bhubaneswar: While political circles here are abuzz with speculation about early Assembly polls in November/December, the Odisha Assembly is likely to be convened for the one last time for four to five days on September 26 to place the supplementary budget of around Rs 25,000 crore.

However, no formal announcement has been made yet to dissolve Assembly in September.

Without ruling out the possibility of Odisha going to polls along with four other states in December, senior BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy told the media that Chief Minister and party president Naveen Patnaik will take a final call on this. He added that early Assembly elections will favour the BJD because of pro-people schemes launched by the state government. “People are getting immense benefits from the schemes. I think this will favour us.”

Former Union Minister and Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi, however, is critical of early Assembly polls in Odisha. He met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and is said to have discussed several issues relating to Odisha. Whether the possibilities of early Assembly polls were discussed is not known.

While stating that the BJP is prepared to face early elections, Sarangi argued that separate elections for Assembly and Lok Sabha will entail significant expenditure and hamper development works due to imposition of a model code of conduct. “It is not good to hold early elections. But, we are always ready to face elections at any time.”

Congress whip in the Assembly Taraprasad Bahinipati told mediapersons that organisational meetings are being held for the last three days in the presence of national leaders to prepare the party for the polls. “The Congress will make the most of the early elections,” he added.