In what seems to be an end to the long suspense over the possibility of an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, the saffron party's State President Manmohan Samal on Friday said that the party will contest alone in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Samal took to his X handle to announce that the party will fight the Lok Sabha and the Odisha Legislative Assembly elections alone.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fight alone this time in all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats of Odisha to create a developed India and a developed Odisha under the visionary leadership of PM Narendra Modi," Samal's post on x read.
“For the last 10 years, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik has been supporting the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on many issues of national importance. We thank him for that,” Samal said.
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“We feel that in all the states that have dual engine governments across the country, development and poverty alleviation work have been accelerated and the respective states are also making progress in all areas,” he said.
“But today in Odisha, many of the welfare schemes of the Modi government are not reaching the grassroots level due to which the poor sisters and brothers of Odisha are not getting their benefits. We cannot agree with the state government on many issues related to the pride of Odias, the glory of Odisha and the interests of the people of Odisha,” he added.
Soon after, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan reposted Samal's post announcing that the BJP will fight alone this time in all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats of Odisha.
Moreover, MP Aparajita Sarangi took to her X handle and responded by saying "Excellent, Immensely Grateful"
Later in the day, in a post on X, BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das announced that his party will contest in all 147 Assembly and all 21 Lok Sabha constituencies alone.
“BJD will contest in all 147 assembly constituencies and all 21 Lok Sabha constituencies with the support of people of Odisha and win more than three fourth seats under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik. BJD will continue to take decisions keeping people of Odisha in the forefront always and their welfare in true sprit of cooperative federalism and statesmanship required for nation building,” read the post. (SIC)