Odisha: BJD holds high-level meeting ahead of elections
Mar 16, 2024
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], March 16 : Odisha Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pratap Keshari Deb said on Saturday that a high-level meeting of the BJD was held under the chairmanship of party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday.
He said that the party meeting was held in view of the upcoming elections.
"We discussed all aspects of the upcoming elections. We also discussed what is on the grapevine or what is in the media," he said.
Deb further stated that the party decided unanimously on what is best in the interest of the state, adding, "The party should take a call on that. This was the general discussion we had..."
Meanwhile, in a blow to the ruling BJD days ahead of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state, popular Odia actor-turned-politician Arindam Roy joined the BJP on Friday.
Roy claimed that he was sidelined by the party and not allowed to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik despite several attempts.
Roy, along with other BJD leaders, joined the BJP in the presence of the party's state president, Manmohan Samal, at the party headquarters in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
Earlier, on Friday, BJP national vice president M Chuba Ao accused the BJD administration in Odisha of falsely claiming credit for central government schemes and misleading people in the state by presenting them as initiatives of the state government.
Odisha has 21 parliamentary constituencies. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) got the maximum number of seats, followed by the BJP and the Congress.
The BJD won 12 seats, the BJP finished a close second at 8 seats and the Congress bagged just a lone seat.
The state has 147 Assembly constituencies. In the last assembly polls, which were held simultaneously with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJD swept the state, winning 113 seats.
The BJP came a distant second at 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) with 1, and an independent candidate with another seat.
