Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a day after the saffron party suffered humiliating defeats in Parliamentary and Assembly by-elections.
Patnaik said, “The BJP is sinking… sinking quite fast,” in his reaction to mediapersons to their query on the by-poll results.
However, when asked about any possibility of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) aligning with an anti-BJP coalition, Patnaik said, “We haven’t thought of any alliance for the time being. There are no such thoughts now.”
According to political observers, the BJD supremo did not altogether rule out his party joining an anti-BJP alliance at the national level though he has so far been adopting a policy of equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress.
To a query about the speculations in a section of the media that the State Ministry is likely to be expanded soon, Patnaik ruled out any such possibility.