Bhubaneswar | The BJP on Tuesday said the “huge anti-incumbency” against the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in Odisha will ensure the party’s defeat in the twin polls beginning April 11.
It also said the ruling party was opposing the four-phase election schedule for Odisha as it feared the BJP’s growing popularity in the state. “The countdown of the Naveen Patnaik-led government’s fall has already started. The ruling BJD has become unpopular and there is huge anti-incumbency against the state government. This will ensure the BJD’s defeat,” BJP’s Odisha in-charge Arun Singh, who arrived here from Delhi, told reporters.
His statement comes a day after Patnaik exuded confidence that his party will perform “very well” in both the Lok Sabha and the state assembly elections. Of the total 147 members in the Odisha Assembly, the BJD has 118 MLAs and the party had won 20 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014 general elections.
The BJP has only 10 MLAs in the House and managed to bag only one Lok Sabha seat in the state in the last parliamentary elections. Singh claimed that the BJP will form the next government in Odisha. He also claimed that a large number of BJD leaders are keen to join the BJP since they have realised the fate of the regional party.
“You will see how many BJD and Congress leaders will join the BJP ahead of the elections. The BJD will soon see its leaders leaving the party,” Singh said. He, however, did not divulge the names of the BJD leaders interested in joining the saffron party. “Recently, former BJD MP Baijayant Panda had joined the BJP and many others will follow,” the BJP’s Odisha in-charge said.
Paradip MLA and expelled BJD leader Damodar Rout recently met BJP leaders in Delhi and he is likely to join the party before the polls. Similarly, former BJD leader Braja Kishore Tripathy may also join the BJP, Singh said. He said the BJP will announce its list of candidates within a week.
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