BJD Leaders' Electoral Fate Under Cloud As Impasse On Seat Sharing With BJP Continues

The BJP and BJD have agreed for an alliance in principle but seat-sharing deal yet to be finalised.

Talks underway on seat-sharing between BJP and BJD ( Image Source :PTI )

Leaders and legislators of the Biju Janata Dal have said that they were unsure whether they could contest the next elections as the BJD and BJP held separate meetings to discuss the possibility of forging an alliance before the upcoming elections for the Lok Sabha and state assembly. 

However, none of the parties are forthcoming about whether the parties would contest together after more than a decade.

According to a PTI report, Odisha Chief Minister BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik sent his close aide V K Pandian and the party's organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das to New Delhi on Thursday evening for a discussion with BJP top brass. 

The details of the discussion are not yet known, the report added. 

After the meeting on Wednesday, senior BJD leaders said that party's decision would be in the "larger interest of the state". 

However, a large of number of party leaders and MLAs were not sure about contesting the next polls. 

"Nobody has any idea whether he or she would be able to contest. Any seat may fall in the share of either party," a BJD leader who attended the meeting at Naveen Niwas, the residence of CM Patnaik, told PTI. 

Even the senior party leaders were not surewhether they could contest from their existing seats, he said, adding that the party's electoral alliance was broken exactly 15 years ago on March 8, 2009, following the BJP's demand for more seats.

While the two parties have agreed for an alliance in principle, the seat sharing between the two parties is yet to be finalised.

As per the report quoting sources placed within the BJD, which has 114 members in the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly, the party would like to retain its seats in the alliance while BJP has been demanding 55 seats.

Naveen Patnaik-led BJD wants at least 112 seats leaving 35 for the BJP, the same has not been agreed by the leaders of the saffron camp. 

In Lok Sabha, where BJP has 8 MPs from Odisha, has been demanding 14 of 21 seats, but BJD is ready to conceded only to 10, as per the report.