BJD, BJP hold talks at their own levels for forging formal alliance

‘Rising Odisha’ seems to be the central idea of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ‘forging an alliance’ with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Sources told News18 that Naveen Patanaik’s party needs funds for various projects in Odisha and “double engine government will help the state”.

During a recent event at at Chandikhole in Jajpur district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the previous governments had never shown interest in the timely completion of projects, adding that those projects that remained stuck in the previous governments’ time were completed during the tenure of the BJP-led Centre in the past 10 years.

Although there was no formal announcement regarding a pre-poll alliance between the two parties, the BJD leaders held a marathon meeting at Naveen Niwas, the residence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.