Odisha BJP chief denies any alliance with BJD for Lok Sabha and Assembly polls

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Odisha state president Manmohan Samal on Friday ruled out speculations over a possible alliance with the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Samal, who was in Delhi to discuss with the central leadership about the candidates for the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly seats in the state, said the BJP will not enter into any alliance with the BJD and will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly elections alone.

“We will fight independently and try to form the government on our own,” said Samal.

The two parties, who were alliance partners till 2009, called off their partnership just before the Assembly polls that year over the 2008 Kandhamal riots.

On Friday, BJP’s election co-in-charge for the state, Lata Usendi triggered speculations as she refused to deny the possibility of an alliance between the two parties. Usendi said that there would be a “double engine” government in Odisha.

The speculation got fillip after it was announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit Odisha on March 5 coinciding with the birth anniversary of former chief minister Biju Patnaik. The BJD, which has been demanding Bharat Ratna for Patnaik over the last decade, intensified its campaign for granting the highest civilian honour to him last month after the Centre announced the award for Karpoori Thakur, LK Advani, MS Swaminathan, Choudhury Charan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao.

Last month, PM Modi had referred to Naveen Patnaik as his friend in a public meeting in Sambalpur last month. The BJD, on its part, announced support to the candidature of Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for the Rajya Sabha poll.

A senior BJP leader said some sort of discussions had taken place over possible alliance, but there seemed to be a stalemate.