Bhubaneswar: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will field candidates during the upcoming 2019 general Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha, in-charge of the state party unit Rajesh Putra informed.
According to Putra, TDP will field candidates in 52 Assembly constituencies and five Lok Sabha seats most of which lie in the six southern districts of the state where the party claims to have a stronghold.
Talks are doing rounds that the party is expecting language based vote bank in southern Odisha which has a dense population of Telugu people.
“Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has decided to project party candidates during the coming elections with an aim to build Odisha as a developed state,” Putra said.
“Similar to the developmental activities carried out by the TDP government in the neighbouring state, a progressive blueprint will be projected as the main agenda before the people of Odisha,” he said.
On the other hand Congress leader Tara Prasad Bahinipati said, " BJD will get less votes if TDP will field candidates for the upcoming elections."
However, BJP and BJD have said that there will be no effect on Odisha if TDP will contest elections.
"It is only a political stunt. TDP doesn't even have a chance to win election in Andhra Pradesh. All Telugu speakers in Odisha are supporters of Naveen Patnaik," BJD vice president Surya Narayan Patro said.
"This is the same TDP which is trying to illegally take water from Vamsadhara river. There will be absolutely no impact on Odisha because of them," BJP leader Bhrugu Baxipatra said.