Bhubaneswar: Amid speculations over its pre-poll alliance with BJP, the Governing BJD today formally started holding meetings for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State.
BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held two different meetings with the MLAs and senior leaders of Puri and Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituencies at Naveen Niwas on Monday.
Senior BJD leaders including Arun Sahoo, Rudra Maharathy, Sanjay Das Burma, Uma Samantaray, and Satyanarayana Pradhan attended the Puri Lok Sabha segment which was held in the morning. However, Puri MP Pinaki Misra has remained absent in the meeting, which raises many questions.
Speaking to media persons, Sahoo said the schedule for simultaneous election in Odisha was announced and Model Code of Conduct has been enforced.
The Chief Minister called a meeting and discussed the organizational situation of Puri parliamentary constituency today. The Chief Minister has asked to strengthen the BJD in all Assembly constituencies under Puri MP seat, he said.
The BJD boss has also asked to expedite the work to enhance interaction with the public. A detailed road map has been prepared to become closer to the voters, the BJD general secretary said.
In the afternoon, BJD top leadership held a meeting with the MLAs and leaders of Kendrapara parliamentary constituency. BJD leaders including Pratap Deb, Sashibhusan Behera, Dhruba Sahu, Pratap Jena, Arabinda Mohapatra and Ansuman Mohnaty attended the meeting. The Chief Minister has discussed the organizational issues and chalked out a strategy to win all seats in the upcoming polls, a BJD leader said.
Meanwhile, State BJP President Manmohan Samal went to Delhi on Monday following a meeting of the party core committee and the election committee.
Party sources said that he went to Delhi with the list of shortlisted candidates for the upcoming elections prepared in the election committee meeting.
However, the final list of candidates will be prepared once the candidates are shortlisted from the existing list. Moreover, the BJP Parliamentary Board will take a final call on who will be BJP’s candidate from where.
