: A couple of days after 26 opposition political parties met at a hotel in Bengaluru to take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a similar State-level exercise was done here. 

Nine opposition parties, including Congress, CPI, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, met and announced to fight the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State.

The meeting held under the chairmanship of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Patnaik saw attendance by top leaders of all the attending parties.

The 2024 elections are going to be a make-or-break battle for the major political parties, especially the Congress which has been out of power in the State since 2000. Its vote share in the 2019 Assembly polls dropped to 16.12% from 33.78% in 2000 when it lost power to the BJD-BJP alliance.

OPCC chief Patnaik said, “The BJD had promised employment to two lakh youths and keep the prices of essential commodities under control. But they couldn’t fulfil any of their promises. The BJP and the BJD, though posing themselves as political rivals after they separated in 2009, are in fact two siblings. All the likeminded parties which took part in the meeting today have vowed to defeat them in the 2024 polls.”

CPI(M) leader Janardan Pati said, “We would like to request the people to unite against the BJD and the BJP. The nine parties that assembled in the first phase will bring other parties together in the first week of August.”

Samajwadi Party leader Rabi Behera said, “The farmers’ income has not doubled nor has the paddy MSP been raised to Rs 2,930 per quintal as demanded by us. Opposing this, the anti-BJP and BJD parties would hold a mass convention in the first week of August.”