Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today said that his party would win 15 to 18 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha during upcoming elections.
Speaking to the media here, Shri Pradhan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and acceptability has increased in the State during the past few years. Different surveys and assessments show that PM’s acceptability in Odisha is in between 85 and 90 per cent, he said.
The Union Minister further said that the Modi government has allotted Rs 18 lakh crore to Odisha during the past 10 years against the allocation of Rs 3 lakh crore made by the then UPA governments during 2004 to 2014. It shows how determined he (Modi) is for the development of Odisha.
In 2014, BJP’s vote share in Odisha was just 22 per cent and the party had won just one Lok Sabha seat. In 2019, the vote share has increased to 38 per cent and the BJP won eight Lok Sabha seats, he said.
“As per predictions made by national-level agencies, this time, BJP’s vote share in the state will rise to more than 45 per cent, and we will win 15 to 18 Lok Sabha seats,” Shri Pradhan asserted.
He said the issues that would be in focus in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Odisha from May 13 would be development of the youth, women, farmers and the poor.
Similarly, Bhubaneswar MP and BJP Spokesperson Aparajita Sarangi claimed that BJP is going to win at least 15 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. The party is also going to form a double engine government in the state, she claimed.
“I can say with all confidence that the way things are going and the way the undercurrent is going, we would be winning more than 15 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats and at the same time we would be forming the government in Odisha. There will be a double-engine Sarkar in Odisha this time,” Shrimati Sarangi told media in New Delhi.
The people of Odisha are very keen to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in the state, she added.