BHUBANESWAR: As announcement of the alliance between the BJD and the BJP remains a mere formality, all eyes are now trained on New Delhi after two top leaders of the regional party rushed to the national capital in a chartered flight on Thursday evening.
While both camps have maintained a stoic silence on the development leading to the formalisation of an electoral understanding and the contentious issue of seat-sharing, sources said, the state BJP leaders camping in Delhi have been asked not to leave the national capital till all issues are resolved.
The sudden departure of VK Pandian, 5T chairman and the point man of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das to New Delhi assumed significance as a core team of the state BJP is having a marathon meeting with some central leaders of the party at the South Avenue residence of Odisha election in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Pal Singh Tomar.
Sources aware of the development said the state leaders were initially opposed to the idea of an alliance with the BJD. They were in no mood to accept the demand of 85 per cent Assembly seats by the regional party. Their argument was that the BJP will be finished forever if more than 100 seats were given to the BJD.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Jual Oram who attended the central core committee meeting of the party on Wednedsay had expressed similar sentiments.
The BJD’s reported insistence for a few Lok Sabha seats including Bhubaneswar and Puri is stated to another bone of contention. While the BJP has a sitting MP in Bhubaneswar, the party is overconfident of winning the Puri seat even without any electoral understanding with the BJD. National BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra who lost the seat to BJD by a hair’s breadth is the aspirant for the prestigious constituency.
“With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the helm, we are confident that the alliance this time will be done in most professional manner,” a senior BJP leader said.
It seems the party has worked out a seat-sharing formula after the day-long discussion. It is to be seen whether the BJP formula will be acceptable to the two BJD leaders who have been deputed by the chief minister to negotiate, the BJP leader said.