Bhubaneswar: Amid suspense over the possible alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the ensuing general elections, three BJP heavyweights have been summoned to Delhi to meet top cadres of the party on Monday. This has again sparked an assumption that the BJP leaders are likely to take forward discussions on the alliance with BJD.
For the past few weeks, the suspense over the BJD-BJP alliance has been intensifying, only BJP’s Odisha election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, co-in-charge Lata Usendi and state president heated the politics by denying the alliance. Two days later, state BJP president Manmohan Samal returned from Delhi and said that there was no discussion about the alliance. On Saturday, Vijaypal Singh Tomar reiterated that the party will fight both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on its strength in Odisha. Now, both leaders have been summoned to Delhi.
BJP’s Odisha election co-in-charge Lata Usendi and state organizational secretary Manas Mohanty are also accompanying them to Delhi. They will hold detailed discussions with the central leadership on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha last Tuesday. The next day, both BJP and BJD held crucial meetings in Delhi and Bhubaneswar respectively on Wednesday. In both meetings, the BJD-BJP alliance was discussed. BJD announced that decisions will be taken for the greater interest of Odisha. Senior BJP leader & MP Jual Oram said that there was a discussion about the alliance in the Delhi meeting.
Two days later, suddenly 5T Chairman Karthik Pandian and BJD organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das reached Delhi on a special charter flight. They held talks with BJP central leaders in the night and returned to Odisha the next day. It was said that as the Prime Minister was not in Delhi the final discussion was scheduled for Monday. Accordingly, the discussion will be held tomorrow.
Odisha BJP Chief Manmohan Samal said in the media that there was no discussion related to the alliance and yesterday Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that rumours and lies are the worst part of politics. In response to a question by 5T Chairman VK Pandian, the CM said that ‘rumours and lies are the worst part of politics‘. Political analysts assume that this was directly aimed at Manmohan Samal.
However, BJP leaders have been called to Delhi within a day. It remains to be seen what decision the BJP central leadership takes in Delhi.