A couple of days before BJP president Amit Shah’s visit to the State, BJD vice-president and Minister Surjya Narayan Patro on Monday ridiculed Shah’s claim that the BJP would win 120 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the State.
Patro said, “Why 120, let the BJP win 220 seats.” He claimed that the BJD would win 123 seats as Biju Patnaik had done in the 1990 polls.
Sources said that in order to counter the BJP’s Mo Booth Sabuthu Majbuth programme, the BJD is trying to identify 20 workers in every ward to work for the party.
However, BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra said Amit Shah’s “arithmatics never go wrong”. The people have already made up their minds for a big change and it has been proved during the last panchayat elections. While the BJP won 68 lakh votes, the BJD won 86 lakh votes.
Not to be left behind, Congress leader Suresh Rouray on Monday claimed to win 85 Assembly seats in the forthcoming polls considering the thin margins by which many of its candidates had lost the elections in 2014.