BHUBANESWAR: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Odisha, both the BJD and BJP camps in the state on Tuesday were caught in hectic political activities indicating the speculations of the pre-poll alliance between the two erstwhile partners.
While a meeting of senior BJD leaders was convened at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's residence Naveen Niwas, state BJP leaders including the state unit president Manmohan Samal and other core committee members were summoned to New Delhi for a high-level meeting with central leadership.
More than 20 senior BJD leaders including the 5T chairman VK Pandian, general secretary organisation Pranab Prakash Das, senior vice-president Debi Mishra, senior cabinet ministers Bikram Arukha, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Ashok Panda and Tukuni Sahu, Rajya Sabha members Sasmit Patra and Manas Mangaraj attended the meeting.
However, there was yet to be any official announcement from the ruling BJD about any decision on alliance though several senior leaders did not rule it out.
Coming out of the meeting, which lasted over two hours, the BJD leaders were tight-lipped. The BJD may announce the decision about an alliance later in the evening leaving the details about seat sharing to be settled through discussion, sources said.
State BJP president Manmohan Samal told mediapersons before leaving for New Delhi that there will be a discussion on the party’s election strategy for Odisha.
Among those who are attending the important meeting include BJP national president JP Nadda, senior leader and union home minister Amit Shah, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, party vice-president Baijayant Panda, party Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal, election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar and co-in-charge Lata Usendi.
BJD had an alliance with the BJP from 1998 to 2009. Both the parties had an alliance government in the state for two terms from 2000 before the BJD broke off after the Kandhamal riots in 2009.
