The formal exercise to finalise list of candidates and Odisha BJP's possible alliance in the upcoming general elections started here on Tuesday with party’s Odisha incharge Chandan Mitra holding meeting with the core committee and election committee members of the State unit.
Mitra, who arrived here on Monday evening, had informal talks with senior party leaders.
Small regional parties like Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM) of Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Ama Odisha Party (AOP) of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Samata Kranti Dal (SKD) of Braja Tripathy and Utkal Bharat of Kharavela Swain have evinced interest to forge alliance with the BJP to fight out both the corrupt Congress and the BJD.
According to party sources, AOP chief Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Utkal Bharat chief Kharavela Swain met Mitra separately and had discussion on the possible alliance or seat sharing with the BJP at the State-level to defeat the corrupt BJD and the Congress.
Sources said that during the first round of the meeting, almost all senior party leaders, including State chief KV Singh Deo, were opposing the idea of forging any alliance with smaller parties and insisted on going it alone in both the lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
The State leaders insisted that instead of forging alliance with the smaller parties, the BJP should persuade them to merge with it to strengthen the mission for “Congress-free India and Odisha-free BJD.” However, a section of the party was against having any sort of talk with OJM chief Pyari Mohan Mohapatra who was instrumental in breaking the alliance with the BJD prior to the 2009 general elections. Even the entire rank and file of the State party deeply resent the idea of having alliance with Mohapatra as his assimilation would be problematic on the eve of elections.
As per reports, the State BJP unit is not completely opposed to the idea of joining hands with Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, a former BJP leader, Braja Tripathy and Kharavel Swain.