BHUBANESWAR: A day after first phase polls in Odisha, senior BJD leader VK Pandian, who is spearheading the party campaign, asserted they are winning at least 24 of the 28 Assembly seats and put up a much better performance at the Lok Sabha level in the first round.
“Not only the phase-I, the BJD will sweep all wthe seats in Odisha as there is a wave in favour of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. BJD will sweep the elections whether it is first, second, third or fourth round. To be precise, in the first round BJD will win a minimum of 24 seats,” the chief strategist of the regional outfit said.
Elections were held to four Lok Sabha seats - Berhampur, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Kalahandi - and 28 Assembly segments under them in the first phase on Monday. In 2019, the party had won 20 out of same 28 Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in the first phase.
While dismissing the rivals, Pandian said, the competition was restricted to two seats with Congress and one seat with BJP. He, however, did not predict anything on the four Lok Sabha seats. He said BJD will do much better in the Lok Sabha elections compared to 2019. “Lok Sabha is too huge to predict,” he stated.
On the impact of the election meetings and roadshows conducted by the BJP top leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and national president JP Nadda, Pandian said it will be known only on June 4, the day votes will be counted.
“The love and affection of people for BJD and its president Naveen Patnaik is very humbling. It gives us a lot of confidence. People coming and waiting for hours in scorching heat gives us the strength to fight for the cause of Odisha,” he said.