Odisha: Pandian reaches Delhi as seat sharing talks reach final stage

Bhubaneswar: While the announcement of the alliance between BJD and BJP is now a mere formality, all eyes are now on New Delhi after the two top leaders of the regional party reached the national capital in a chartered flight on Thursday evening.

While both the camps have maintained silence on the contentious issue of formalizing the electoral understanding and seat-sharing, sources said, state BJP leaders camping in Delhi have been asked not to leave the national capital till all issues are resolved. Have been resolved.
The sudden visit of 5T chairman and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s aide VK Pandian and BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das to New Delhi has assumed significance as the core team of the state BJP is holding a marathon meeting with some central leaders of the party. At the South Avenue residence of Odisha election in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Pal Singh Tomar.
Sources aware of the developments said state leaders were initially opposed to the idea of an alliance with the BJD. He was in no mood to accept the regional party’s demand of 85 percent assembly seats. His argument was that if BJD was given more than 100 seats, BJP would be destroyed forever.
Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Jual Oram, who attended the party’s Central Core Committee meeting on Wednesday, had also expressed similar sentiments.
Another reason for the controversy is that BJD is emphasizing on some Lok Sabha seats including Bhubaneswar and Puri. While the BJP has a sitting MP in Bhubaneswar, the party is overconfident of winning the Puri seat even without any electoral pact with the BJD. National BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, who lost the seat to BJD by a hair’s margin, is aspirant for the coveted constituency.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, we are confident that this time the alliance will be done in the most professional manner,” a senior BJP leader said.
It seems that the party has prepared the seat sharing formula after a day-long discussion. The BJP leader said, it has to be seen whether the BJP’s formula will be acceptable to the two BJD leaders who have been appointed by the Chief Minister for talks.