BHUBANESWAR: Amid the wait for release of candidates list for Odisha, state BJP president Manmohan Samal on Sunday said the upcoming elections will be decisive and pave way for his party to form the next government.
Asserting that the outcome of the elections will be heavily in favour of BJP, Samal said, “We held detailed discussions with the central leadership and communicated our strategy during the meeting”.
Samal who had been to Delhi on Saturday to attend a meeting of the party’s central election committee (CEC) for finalisation of candidates told reporters on his return from the national capital that electoral strategy for the state was also discussed. “We communicated our strategy to the central leadership but we will act as per their decisions,” Samal said.
He said the CEC meeting attended by top leaders of the party including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party’s national president JP Nadda discussed extensively about Odisha. “Now everything rests with the CEC and the BJP parliamentary board. Everything will be clear once the list is out,” he said without revealing how many candidates from Odisha will figure in the list.
Odisha was among the five states taken up by the CEC to finalise candidates. The other states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
It is speculated that candidates for at least four seats - Bhubaneswar, Puri, Sambalpur and Sundargarh - have been finalised. Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram are stated to be renominated while BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra who lost the elections with a narrow margin last time will be repeated from Puri.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan fighting from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat is a foregone conclusion, party sources said. There are rumours that a few sitting BJP MPs will be denied Lok Sabha ticket this time and asked to contest Assembly elections.