Odisha BJP leaders on Wednesday met Home Minister Amit Shah and the party's national president JP Nadda amid indications that it may enter into an alliance with the BJD for Lok Sabha and assembly polls, which are held simultaneously in the state.
Sources said there is a strong possibility of an alliance between the BJP and the BJD but noted that a final call has to be taken by the top brass of the national party depending on various aspects, most importantly the number of seats it will get to contest.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal and former Union minister Juel Oram attended the core committee meeting with Shah and Nadda.
"Yes, there were discussions on the alliance among other issues. The party's central leadership will make the final call," Oram said.
In case of an alliance, the BJP will definitely contest a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the state while the regional party will contest a majority of assembly seats, the sources said.
Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly seats.
The BJD and the BJP won 12 and eight parliamentary constituencies and 112 and 23 assembly constituencies respectively in 2019.
There has been a growing buzz about the alliance between the two parties, which have been allies in the past too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have publicly praised each other, most recently during Modi's rally in the state on Tuesday.
The BJD has also been mostly supportive of the Modi government's agenda in Parliament.
Leaders from other states are also meeting Shah and Nadda, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh among others.
The BJP's Central Election Committee, which includes Prime Minister Modi and other senior leaders, will hold its second meeting later this week for finalising the party's candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
It has so far announced candidates for 195 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 543.
Meanwhile, BJD leaders also held an over-three hour meeting at Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in Bhubaneswar.
BJD vice-president and MLA Debi Prasad Mishra acknowledged that discussions took place about a possible alliance with the BJP but did not explicitly say if a decision has been taken.
"Biju Janata Dal will prioritise the greater interests of the people of Odisha. Yes, there were discussions on the issue (alliance)," Mishra told reporters.
Odisha had progressed significantly under Naveen Patnaik's leadership and there is a need to take the state's development to the next level, he said.
A press release by Mishra and BJD's senior general secretary Arun Kumar Sahoo said, "An extensive discussion was held under the leadership of BJD president and CM Naveen Patnaik with the senior leaders of the party today regarding the strategy of the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections."
