BJD-BJP poll alliance talks fail, both parties to go solo in Odisha

The two-week-long talks over the possible pre-poll alliance between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha broke down, with both parties separately announcing decisions to go solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

The deliberations on stitching a tie-up between the two parties started on March 6, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state, and continued till Thursday night.

BJP state unit president Manmohan Samal, who returned from Delhi late on Thursday after meeting central leaders, announced on X that the party would go solo in the elections.

"Bharatiya Janata Party will fight this election alone in all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats to create a developed India and a developed Odisha under the visionary leadership of Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to fulfil the hopes, aspirations and aspirations of four and a half crore Odiyas," Samal said in a post.

Barely two hours after Samal's announcement, BJD general secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das also took to X and declared his party's decision to field candidates in all 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly constituencies.

"With blessings of Lord Jagannath and faith of the people of Odisha, BJD has been serving the state and transforming it like never before in every sector," Das said in a social post.

Odisha will go to simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and assembly in four phases - on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.

The BJP state leaders were summoned to Delhi several times where discussions were held on the pros and cons of the possible alliance.

Odisha BJP president and MPs like Jual Oram, Pratap Sarangi and Aparajita Sarangi were opposed to any alliance with the BJD which dumped the saffron party ahead of the 2009 general elections, months after a riot in Kandhamal the previous year, sources said.

The BJD and the BJP were in alliance for 11 years between 1998 and 2009 and fought three Lok Sabha and two Assembly elections together.

Following the decision to go solo, celebrations broke out at the BJP state headquarters where party workers danced, burst crackers and distributed sweets.

Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda for the decision.

"The BJD had proposed an alliance and we have rejected it," she said.

In his post on X, Samal also thanked BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his party's support to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre on various issues for the last 10 years.

To justify the party's decision, Samal said, "We feel that the states that have dual engine governments across the country, make extensive development and accelerate welfare work for poor."

The BJP state president also claimed that many of the welfare schemes of the Modi government are not reaching the grassroots level, and the poor people of Odisha failed to get the benefits.

BJD leader Das claimed that the party would win more than three-fourth of the seats both in the Lok Sabha and Odisha assembly.