Odisha BJP Chief Manmohan Samal Rules Out Alliance with BJD, Vows Independent Election Bid – News18

Underlining the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) independent stance in Odisha, State party President Manmohan Samal has said that there will be no alliance between BJP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD), adding that the party will contest all seats in the state.

“We will form the government in Odisha and we will win more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and form the government at the center, it was discussed in the meeting in Delhi,” Samal told reporters on Friday evening.

Samal’s remarks follow a meeting of central leaders in New Delhi, where the state core committee, led by Samal, discussed election strategies for the upcoming General and assembly elections. Earlier, several reports suggested that the BJD would return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold 15 years after breaking off ties in 2009 following the Kandhamal riots in 2008.

In an earlier statement, BJD senior vice president Debi Prasad Mishra and senior general secretary Arun Kumar Sahoo said after holding the party talks, “It was resolved that since by 2036, Odisha will complete 100 years of its statehood and the BJD and CM have major milestones to be achieved by this time, therefore the Biju Janata Dal will do everything towards this in the greater interests of the people of Odisha and the state.”

The two parties were allies from 1998 until 2009. Before becoming the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik served as a union minister in the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet in the 1990s. This declaration dispels any speculation of a potential alliance, as Samal affirmed no discussions have taken place regarding such a partnership.