Amid rising speculation about early Assembly elections in Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday held here a crucial meeting under the leadership of party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to assess its current organisational strength and prepare a roadmap for the mega electoral exercise. The meeting was held at the Naveen Niwas.
The speculation of mid-term Assembly polls has gathered steam after Union Minister and BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan recently said he was “hearing” about such a possibility. “If it happens, we are ready for that,” he had said.
The BJD has currently 114 MLAs in the 147- member State Assembly. The BJP and the Congress have 22 and nine members, respectively.
BJD leader Prasanna Acharya said, “Today, we had a brainstorming discussion with regard to our current strength. Besides, a postmortem of the Padampur by-poll, which we won, was conducted. The CM appreciated the united efforts of party leaders and workers that helped our candidate Barsha Singh Bariha win the seat by a huge margin of over 42,000 votes.”
Acharya informed that the CM would visit Padampur in January next to assure to fulfil all the promises made to the people there during the by-poll. The promises include a separate district status to Padampur and clearing the input subsidy to the drought-hit farmers.
BJD organising secretary Pranab Pakash Dash, many senior leaders like Debi Prasad Mishra, Naba Kisore Das, Sudhir Samal and Pradeep Majhi attended the meeting.
Of late, the BJP has emerged as the main challenger to the BJD and vowed to oust the BJD from power in the next polls.
“When some people rule a State for long, they bubble with a false ego that they are invincible. In fact, no one is invincible. We will fight the BJD and end its rule of corruption and nepotism in 2024,” Dharmendra Pradhan had said after the party’s victory in the Dhamnagar by-poll.