2024 general election: Opposition parties led by Cong meet in Bhubaneswar to take on BJD & BJP in Odisha 

Two days after 26 political parties met at a hotel in Bengaluru to take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a meeting of the parties that are opposing both the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha was convened under the chairmanship of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief, Sarat Pattanayak. 

Since the 2024 general election is going to be a make-or-break battle for the major political parties, the Odisha unit of the grand old party is preparing its strategies to launch a fight against the BJP and the BJD. A total of nine parties including the left parties are learned to have taken part in the meeting, which was held in a hotel in Bhubaneswar. 

The meeting was also attended by the Odisha Congress Campaign Committee chairman Bijay Patnaik. 

“They had told that they would give employment to 2 crore youths and keep the prices of essential commodities under control. But they couldn’t fulfill anything they had promised. The BJP and the BJD are siblings. They have pushed the state into the abyss of backwardness. Protesting against them, all the parties including the CPI and CPI (M) have taken part in the meeting,” said the OPCC chief.

CPI (M) leader Janardan Pati said, “We would like to request the people of the state to unite against the BJD and BJP. The nine parties that have assembled in the first phase will bring other parties together in the first week of August. We solicit the blessings and cooperation of the people of the state.”

Echoing the same, Samajwadi Party leader Rabi Behera said, “The farmers’ income has not doubled, nor has the paddy MSP been raised to Rs 2930 per quintal. Opposing this, the anti-BJP and BJD parties would hold a mass convention in the first week of August. Later it would be intensified into a mass agitation against the BJD and the BJP.”

No reactions from the BJP and the BJD have been received on the meeting of the opposition parties.