TV
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday asserted that it will win 80 Assembly seats and 18 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha in the next general elections.
The claims were made by party’s Saraskana MLA Budhan Murmu.
“Though BJP was weak in Odisha in the past, but the party has seen an exponential rise in its performance. Our leaders at the Centre have already devised a plan and it will be implemented on the ground soon enough to realise the targeted seats,” said Murmu while speaking to reporters.
"We are targeting 70-80 MLA seats in Odisha. And I am sure with the leadership of State in-charge, Sunil Bansal, we will perform well,” he added.
However, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) refuted BJP’s claims. BJD MLA, Prasanta Muduli said, “Politics is not done from the confinements of cosy rooms. BJP had earlier made many tall claims. They had even raised slogans for 120 seats in Odisha. But people have only one picture on their minds and that is of Naveen Patnaik.”
“We have absolutely nothing to fear as the BJD has made its presence felt at the grassroots level. The way BJD has penetrated even the lower rungs of the society to make government benefits available to them, we are sure that we will again form government in Odisha,” Muduli said.
To which, BJP's Mohan Majhi replied, "We had failed last time, but that does not mean we will keep failing in all elections. Lat failure has taught us many important things and we have planned accordingly."
The Congress party on the otherhand said that claims are not taxed under the law. So anybody can make any kind of claim.
“The winner will be decided by the people on the election battleground and not by pen and paper,” said Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati.
With the general election 2024 being less than a year away, the BJP has already stepped up its preparations to form government in Odisha and win maximum Lok Sabha seats. For this, the saffron party is going to prepare a strategy at its Guwahati meet on July 6.
A five-member team comprising state president Manmohan Samal, regional prabhari Sunil Bansal, state prabhari D Purandeswari, assistant prabhari Bijaypal Singh Tomar, National Vice President Baijayant Panda and organisational general secretary Manas Mohanty are all set to attend the July 6 meet. The discussion will feature what more will be required to capture Odisha.
