BHUBANESWAR: Putting the alliance talks with the ruling BJD on the back burner, the BJP on Saturday got into the serious business of finalising candidates for all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.
The state election committee of the BJP held a marathon meeting at its state headquarters here to select probable candidates for each of the 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. The party has already prepared a list with at least three probable candidates for each seat as required by the central leaders for hammering out seat adjustment with the BJD.
As uncertainty over alliance with the ruling party still prevails with the possibility of last minute intervention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the election committee took the opportunity to have a seat-wise discussion to pick best of the candidates. The election observers of the party have also come up with names of more aspirants and the committee will have to make a fresh evaluation, sources said.
“If an alliance with BJD works out, chances of which now appears remote, the ad-hoc list will come handy for finalisation of candidates by the central parliamentary board,” the sources added.
The meeting which started at about 10 am in the morning was chaired by state BJP president Manmohan Samal and continued till this report was filed. All members including two Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Bishweswar Tudu, MPs Jual Oram, Pratap Sarangi, Suresh Pujari, Basanta Panda, national vice-president Baijayant Panda, national spokesperson Sambit Patra, party’s Odisha co-in-charges Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Lata Usendi, general secretary (organisation) Manas Mohanty, Surama Padhi, Samir Mohanty and Mahila Morcha President Aiswarya Biswal were present.