Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and former minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai on Monday said that people were in favour of a Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre and a Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in Odisha.
Talking to mediapersons on the exit poll survey reports on the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, he said the BJD will win lesser number of Lok Sabha seats than it had in 2014, but it would still be ahead of the BJP and the Congress. “I can’t say how many Lok Sabha seats the BJP will win, but the saffron party will come next to the BJD,” he said.
He also said that the BJD will win a majority in the Assembly elections. “The people of Odisha are with Naveen and have voted for him and his party,” he said.
Referring to sharing of votes, the former finance minister said some votes might have got split in urban areas, but there was no possibility of this happening in the rural areas.
Ghadai was expelled from the party in September 2014 after a leading Odia daily quoted him making certain unpalatable statements against the BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. In the interview, he had purportedly questioned the leadership of the BJD president and accused him of being under the influence of a coterie.
However,ahead of Assembly elections this year, on March 18, the Chief Minister withdrew the expulsion order on the former Sukinda MLA and appointed him as the party’s vice-president on April 15.
