Bhubaneswar: Further fueling speculation about a possible comeback of estranged leaders to BJD, senior BJP leader Dilip Ray on Thursday kept everyone guessing by not clearly stating his intentions of rejoining the party, though he did not rule out the possibility either.
“What will I say on the issue as it is an internal matter of BJD and CM Naveen Patnaik only knows what he meant,” said Ray adding that it is a welcoming gesture of BJD to bring old horses back.
The neutral statements of Ray are likely to give jitters to the leaders of saffron party in state ahead of the scheduled visit of Amit Shah.
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Senior leaders including Bijoy Mohapatra and Dilip Ray were earlier the founder members of BJD and had left the party due to a fallout with Naveen Patnaik for several reasons in the past.
Naveen Patnaik had yesterday hinted at possibilities of BJD welcoming back leaders who had quit the party for some reason or the other after deciding on case to case basis. Even today, after his meeting with newly elected members of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs), Patnaik said that the move to bring back the old guards is being considered seriously by BJD.