Bhubaneswar: The seat-sharing talks between the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the NDA banner seem to have hit a block — primarily after the two parties could not reach a consensus on the Bhubaneswar and Puri seats in Odisha.
The talks between the two parties, held in Delhi, have failed, said sources. Party insiders of both the BJP and the BJD have indicated that they will go solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
When BJP’s Odisha president Manmohan Samal returned from Delhi on Friday, he hinted that the party has the potential to field candidates in all the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and also the 147 seats in the Assembly. However, Samal emphasized that the discussions held in Delhi were solely centred on preparations for the impending elections, with no mention of forming an alliance or arranging seat-sharing agreements.
PTI quoted Sasmal as saying, “There were no discussions regarding an alliance, and the BJP intends to contest the elections independently. Our visit to Delhi was aimed at deliberating with central leaders on our readiness for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state. There were no negotiations concerning alliances or seat-sharing with any other party during the meeting. The BJP is prepared to contest both elections based on its own capabilities.”
The change of mood comes barely a few days after reports suggested that the BJD may return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fifteen years after it had parted ways.
BJD leaders had also huddled for a crucial meeting to discuss the joining at Naveen Niwas, the official residence of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while counterparts from the BJP, including Samal, met national leaders in a parallel meeting.
What went wrong
If sources are to be believed, the BJP had asked for 14 of the 21 seats, a demand rejected by the BJD. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, 12 of the 21 seats were bagged by the BJD while the BJP won eight. A lone seat was won by Congress’s Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka.
Notably, in 2009, the BJD had exited the NDA for a similar reason — a tussle over seat sharing. The BJD had asked its ally BJP to reduce its Assembly seats from 63 to 40 and its Parliament seats to six from nine. However, the BJP did not accept the demand, leading to the BJD’s exit.
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