Bhubaneswar, Mar 9:
Odisha BJP unit president Manmohan Samal on Friday put an end to political speculations about the possible BJP- BJD electoral alliance in the State and clarified that his party will contest the elections alone in the State.
Samal told this to the newsmen at the Biju Patnaik International airport on his arrival from Delhi where he had gone to discuss the party’s election strategy withUnion Home Minister Amit Shah and party’s national president J.P. Nadda.
In the past few days, the emergency meeting convened by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik with senior party leaders at the Naveen Niwas and the visit of BJP leaders to New Delhi had led the political speculation that both the BJP and the BJD will forge an alliance in the ensuingAssembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The statement of two senior BJD leaders Debi Prasad Mishra and Arun Saho soon after the marathon meeting at the NaveenNiwason March 6 last had led to believe that both the BJD and the BJP are heading for an electoral alliance.
Mishra andbSahu, both former Ministers and senior party leaders when asked by the waiting newsmen about the alliance with the BJP, said the party will take a decision keeping the interest of the state and its people as Odisha, they said after 12 years will be completing100 years of the formation of statehood.
The sudden visit of bureaucrat-turned BJD leader V.K. Pandian and BJD’s organisation secretary Pranab Prakash Das to Delhi onThursday night also fuelled the speculation that the BJD and BJP will go for an electoral alliance.
However, BJP Odisha president Manmohan Samal on his return from Delhi had clarified that no discussions were held on any alliance during his meeting with the central party leaders.
He emphatically stated that the BJP will contest all the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 Assembly seats in Odisha and will form the next Government in the State.
