BJP leader Mohan Majhi said, "The Home Minister has advised all party leaders to work with confidence. He said if the party could win polls in states with 2 to 6 per cent of votes, there would be no hurdles in Odisha, where it got 34 per cent votes in 2019."
Responding to the call of samiti member of Kanchana panchayat, Chitrasen Ghose, over 8,000 BJD workers including sarpanchs of five panchayats joined the BJP.
Thousands of party workers and leaders from seven panchayats were part of the roadshow of about 20 km. The bike rally passed through places like Buanla, Bangarpuan, Deuli Gaon, Sikudi, Kuhudi, and Akhuapada among others.
The BJP stalwart also visited Ram Mandir at Artamula village under Derabish block and sought blessings of Lord Sri Ram.
After attending the rally, the Home Minister will stay in Bhubaneswar that day and will hold a key meeting the next day with BJP leaders and workers at the party office in Bhubaneswar to discuss the electoral strategies.
President of Odisha BJP Manmohan Samal said, “We have decided to bring a charge-sheet against the government on April 21 before our Sankalp Patra is released in the first week of May."
BJP leader and Ollywood actress Pinky Pradhan said that as all the big celebrities like Anubhav Mohanty, Sidhant Mohapatra and Arindam Roy have deserted BJD, the ruling party is afraid of defeat in the upcoming election.
The promise is said to be a strategy of the BJP to chip away into the women vote bank of the BJD under its Shakti Vandana programme, as a similar promise has handed out electoral dividends to the party in the recently-concluded Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Senior BJP leader Samir Mohanty told the media, "The model code of conduct is in force and the ECI barred the IPS from taking part in any election duty. However, it has been seen that Kutey is calling SPs, IICs and political leaders. He has been working on partisan lines. This is a violation of the poll MCC.”
Reportedly, Baxipatra was an aspirant for the BJP ticket for the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. However, after being denied ticket, he decided to quit the party, said sources
Out of the total 147 Assembly constituencies, the saffron party has announced the names of 112 candidates.
Samal said, "We have discussed threadbare about Odisha elections. Everything was put forth before the CEC. It is up to them to decide on the poll strategies and accordingly elections will be fought.”
Senior BJD leader and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab resigned from the primary membership of BJD on Friday. Mahtab has expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the party.
Amid the ongoing speculations over a possible BJP-BJD coalition, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah said that the saffron party is yet to take a final call on the alliance.
The BJP will also highlight the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in the last 10 years as part of its strategy for the 2024 polls.
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