Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s ruling BJD which has a 2.85 per cent share of votes in the electoral college for the coming Presidential elections, chose not to attend the meeting of opposition parties convened by AITMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The meeting was held to find a consensus on fielding a joint candidate against the ruling NDA in the presidential election. While many BJD leaders preferred not to comment on the party skipping the opposition meeting, a senior leader without being named said: “The party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was yet to react to the invitation for the meeting.”
While the NDA has 48 per cent of votes in the electoral college, it requires outside support to the order of more than 2 per cent in order to get its candidate elected as the next President.
Political circles here believe that the BJD may extend its support to the NDA candidate. Apart from BJD, YSR Congress Party also has 4 per cent of votes and is not a member of the NDA. The YSRC has also skipped the opposition meeting like BJD.
Though BJD continued to maintain that the regional party has remained at arms length from both the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led UPA, it had earlier supported BJP’s Ramnath Kovind for Presidentship. Meanwhile, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik has already met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 30 in New Delhi. The meeting at South Block lasted for about 30 minutes. But, Patnaik later said there was no talk on the Presidential elections.
Earlier last week, AITMC president had written letter to 22 non-BJP leaders, including Patnaik, to chalk out a joint strategy for the July 18 Presidential elections.
PTI