With no let-up in the speculations about an alliance between the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha, BJP MP and former Union Minister Jual Oram on Monday tried to allay the confusion of their cadres.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Oram said, “There is no confusion among party workers over any alliance. We have sent a list to the Central leadership and everything will be done as per their decision.”
His statement came on the heels of Odisha BJP Chief Manmohan Samal’s visit to Delhi on Monday.
As per reports, Samal left for Delhi today following a meeting of the party core committee and the election committee. It is believed that he went to Delhi with the list of probable candidates for the upcoming elections prepared in the election committee meeting.
However, the final list of candidates will be prepared once the candidates are shortlisted from the existing list. Moreover, the BJP parliamentary board will take a final call on who will be BJP's candidate from where.
The meeting of the BJP state office bearers was held till late in the night last Saturday. The details were discussed in the core committee and election committee meetings. The state BJP has reportedly finalised candidates for all Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.
Meanwhile, a meeting has been convened at Naveen Niwas with BJD observers and party leaders of the Puri Parliamentary Constituency. The leaders include Arun Sahu, Sanjay Dasburma, Rudra Maharathy, Umakant Samantray and Satya Pradhan among others.
It is pertinent to mention here that BJD candidate Pinaki Misra had won from Puri LS Constituency in 2019 by a mere 10000 votes against BJP’s Sambit Patra.
The BJD is said to be focusing on Puri to increase its vote share and the margin of win this time around.