Orissa panchayat polls

Six decided, BJD-BJP discuss to reach consensus on 24 more districts

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo


Bhubaneswar, Jan. 9: Having experienced the bitter taste of defeat at several places during the last panchayat polls, the BJD and BJP in Orissa have decided to fight together the coming polls.

Both the parties – which share power in the state – have agreed to jointly contest elections in at least six of the total 30 districts. Further discussion is on between the leaders of the two parties to forge alliance in some more districts.

The Opposition Congress and Orissa Gana Parishad are also exploring possibilities to fight the elections together.

Hectic parleys and conferences continued here on Tuesday between the BJD and BJP leaders as well as Congress and Orissa Gana Parishad leaders to give complete shapes to their seat-sharing arrangements. However, no concrete picture emerged by the evening.

The six districts on which the BJD and BJP have managed to reach an understanding include Sundergarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Boudh Sonepur and Balasore.

BJD president Navin Patnaik and state BJP chief Suresh Pujari said on Tuesday that they were hopeful of forging an alliance in some more districts.

On Monday, the BJD-BJP coordination committee decided on six districts following reports from their respective district-level leaders and committees. Several ministers from both parties attended the coordination committee meeting which was the second such exercise today.

In some districts, there were serious differences between the ruling combine leaders and at many places the BJD leaders were keen on going it alone.

In the last panchayat polls, Congress revived its position as the BJD and BJP went to polls separately and finished the second, next to the BJD. The BJP was pushed to third position.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties here have demanded that Kendrapara collector Kasinath Sahoo be relieved of the responsibility of conducting three-tier panchayat polls alleging that he was working as an "agent" of the ruling parties.

"There is going to be a repeat of 2004 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls when government machineries had bowed to ruling parties' decree and officials left no stone unturned to ensure the victory of BJD-BJP combine. The Election Commission had removed the then collector Hemant Sharma for partisan stand," said Orissa Gana Parishad president Bijoy Mohapatra.