Bhubaneswar : Even after two rounds of discussions between the BJP’s central leaders like Arun Jaitley with the leaders of small parties in Odisha, there seems to be no possibility of an alliance in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Jaitley, during his visit earlier this week, had met Aama Odisha leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Utkal Bharat President Kharvel Swain and the Samata Kranti Dal leader, Braja Kishore Tripathy, to set up an anti-BJD and anti-Congress front to ensure that there was no division of votes in the state.
The Samata Kranti Dal president, Braja Kishore Tripathy, on Thursday announced that his party would have no alliance with any party and would field candidates in about half- a-dozen Lok Sabha seats and about 50 Assembly seats in the state. It would support non-BJD candidates in the rest of the seats, Tripathy said.
Of the two remaining small parties, sources said the BJP leadership was not inclined to give more than 10 assembly seats each to the Aama Odisha and Utkal Bharat. This apart, there was an effort to bring back the Utkal Bharat leader and former MP, Kharvel Swain, to the BJP fold. Swain was elected to Lok Sabha from Balasore seat on BJP ticket. –PTI
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