BHUBANESWAR: Asserting that the people of Odisha have already decided to make Naveen Patnaik the chief minister of the state for the sixth consecutive time, the ruling BJD on Sunday said over 10,000 aspirants have applied for tickets from the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
General secretary (organisation) of the regional outfit Pranab Prakash Das said the party is moving towards a historic win in the coming elections as is evident from a large number of applications for tickets.
“Many professionals and leaders of national political parties have applied for tickets from the regional party which shows that people’s trust and confidence in the leadership of the chief minister is increasing,” he added.
The BJD’s assertion of a historic victory came amidst claims of BJP that it is going to form government in the state with a comfortable majority. The party had also recently quoted survey reports claiming that the BJD will win 18 Lok Sabha seats out of a total 21 in Odisha and an overwhelming majority of 128 Assembly seats in the state.
“It is a matter of happiness that a large number of professionals and leaders of national political parties are applying for BJD tickets. We strongly believe that BJD is moving towards a historic victory in this election with the blessings of 4.5 crore people of Odisha,” Das said.
Das said by winning more than 52 per cent of the votes in the 2022 panchayat elections, BJD has proved to be the number one political party in Odisha. The party had also won all the 30 posts of Zilla Parishad president.