After a brief lull, the buzz about behind-the-scenes exercises for an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the upcoming elections has become active again.
The speculations about the likely coalition between the two parties have been going through a rollercoaster over the past one week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a meeting on March 5 at Chandikhole; where Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was present and their mutual gestures sent a signal of bonhomie.
Meetings after meetings!
As per sources, an important meeting was held at the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday. It was attended by BJP' Odisha in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, co-in-charge Lata Usendi, Party’s state unit president Manmohan Samal, and organizational secretary Manas Mohanty, though the agenda of the meeting did not transpire.
It is expected that a major development about the coalition can emerge at any moment now.
Political observers conjecture that the discussion at the meeting may be related to the seat-sharing formula. It is said that the speculated alliance talks have got stuck on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.
On the other hand, as per sources, an emergency meeting will be held at Naveen Niwas on Thursday and some senior party leaders and the party’s district observers have reportedly been called to attend the meeting. The meeting is likely to discuss the bottlenecks in seat-sharing with the BJP.
A similar meeting was held at Naveen Niwas on March 6 and after the meeting senior party leader, Debi Mishra told the media that the Chief Minister would take a decision in the larger interests of the state.
Seat sharing bottleneck
Though the BJP-BJD seat sharing ratio that is being thrown around is 13:8 for Lok Sabha and 49:98 for Assembly seats, the two parties are unable to agree on this formula, it is said.
As a survey report claims that the popularity of the Prime Minister is high in Odisha, the BJP is reportedly demanding more than 50 Assembly seats. Moreover, the saffron party, in view of its past experience, is sceptical of its old ally’s cooperation after the alliance.
The BJD is said to be hell-bent on 100 Assembly seats. The party is reportedly doubtful about its magic number of majority even if it contests 100 seats.
BJD wary of BJP
Many believe that if the BJP gets more Assembly seats, it will exert more pressure on the BJD in a coalition government, which is why, internally, the BJD wants to keep the BJP away from the government and power sharing and does not want any of its ministers in the government.
BJD legislator Parusram Dhada said, "As the party's top leadership and the Chief Minister himself are intervening in the issue and the top leaders of the BJP are involved, they only can say what is going on. I guess talks are on. But there is no specific news about it.”
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BJP leader Prakash Soren said, "Nothing can be said on what will happen. State leaders have been called to New Delhi. The top leadership will take the decision.”
Senior journalist Rabi Das said, “The problem might be which seats will be spared and kept by the two parties. I think the BJD is more concerned about its curtailed elbowroom in case of a coalition government.”