Ahead of results day, BJD says will support any party that agrees to its demands

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday said it would support any party or combination forming the next government at the Centre if they agree to settle some of the long pending issues of Odisha.

BJD spokesman Amar Patnaik said chief minister Naveen Patnaik has already made BJD’s position clear when he launched the party’s electoral campaign from Nayagarh district in March this year.

“The chief minister had said that as no national party will get a majority this time to form the government at the Centre, it would be a golden opportunity for people of Odisha and BJD to have a major role in the formation of the government. We have several long-pending demands including special category status,” said Patnaik.

The BJD has made special category status a major political since the day it was first elected to power in 2000. In case of the centrally-sponsored schemes and external aid, special category States get 90 per cent as grant and 10 per cent as loan as against it is 30 per cent grant and 70 per cent loan for other States.

Two days ago, BJD vice-president Surya Patro had reiterated that BJD has shunned its policy of equi-distance from both NDA and UPA while proposing that Patnaik be made PM.

Several exits polls on Sunday predicted that BJD would lose a huge number of Lok Sabha seats to BJP. The Republic exit polls with CVoter predicted that BJP would win 10 Lok Sabha seats against BJD’s 11. The second exit poll of Republic with Jan ki Baat showed BJP may win 12 seats and BJD 9.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJD had won 20 of the 21 seats leaving just one seat to BJP.

Times Now-VMR has also predicted a similar result of Lok Sabha polls in Odisha. The News 18 exit poll projected that BJP might win 6 to 8 seats while the BJD could grab 12 to 14 seats. The India TV exit polls showed BJP winning 6 and BJD winning 15 seats in Odisha. The most stunning exit polls on Odisha came from India Today Axis that said BJP would win 15 to 19 Lok Sabha seats while the BJD will win only 2 to 6 seats.

BJD’s Amar Patnaik dismissed the exit poll findings saying the numbers were far-fetched. “If the sample taken to predict the exit polls is inaccurate then the outcome would also be wrong. The poll agencies are supposed to be asking questions after the voter comes out of the polling booth. If the sample used does not represent the voters, then the outcome predicted would be wrong. In Odisha, women voters have voted for BJD and would help the party win comfortably,” he said.