BJD Leaders VK Pandian, Pranab Prakash Das Reach Delhi Amid Alliance Speculations with BJP

Bhubaneswar: Amid speculations about possible alliance with the BJP, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday evening sent his close aide V K Pandian and the party’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das to New Delhi for a discussion with the BJP top brass.

Earlier the ruling BJD and opposition BJP held separate meetings in Bhubaneswar and Delhi respectively to discuss the possibility of forging an alliance before the upcoming elections for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly. Details of the discussion, have not been made public.

BJD leaders feel that the ruling party, which has 114 members in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, should retain its seats in the alliance while BJP is said to be demanding 55 seats. But BJD leaders want BJP to have 35 seats to contest, which is not acceptable for the BJP leaders.

Before the talk of the alliance, BJD leader Sasmit Patra had claimed that his party would win in 120 seats.

The BJP, which has 8 MPs in the Lok Sabha from Odisha, is demanding to contest 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state,w hich is not acceptable for the BJD leaders. The BJD is ready to concede only 10, sources said.

The entire BJP state leadership including its president Manmohan Samal has been camping in Delhi. They held a marathon meeting at the residence of Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, the BJP election in-charge for Odisha.

The state BJP leaders were told to stay in the national capital till seat sharing is finalized.

The BJD and the BJP were allies in the past and fought three Lok Sabha and two assembly elections between 1998 and 2009.

Earlier, the seat sharing ratio between BJD and BJP was 4:3. While BJD contested 84 assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP fought in 63 assembly and 9 Lok Sabha seats.