Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has planned to reach out to several major political parties at the national and regional levels to take their support to achieve 33 per cent women reservation in the Assembly and the Parliament.
The party which has now embarked on its mission to bat for women reservation in the Parliament Wednesday announced formation of several subcommittees comprising party MPs and other leaders who are slated to meet different parties to garner their support for the cause.
The BJD has planned to talk to seven national parties like Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI), CPM and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
It has also formed subcommittees to reach out regional parties like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK), Indian National Lok Sal ((INLD), Janata Dal Secular (JDS), Janata Dal United (JDU) and the National Conference (NC).
As per the plan, senior BJD MPs like Tathagata Satpathy, Pinaki Mishra and Prasanna Kumar Patasani will meet the Congress party members while others like Prasanna Acharya, Bhartruhari Mahtab and Sarojini Hembram will meet the BJP delegation to seek their support.
Likewise, leaders like Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Ananta Das and Shashi Bhushan Behera have also been roped in for the programme.
Moreover, BJD leaders like Surya Narayan Patro, Anubhav Mohanty and Prabhas Singh would meet the AAP in Delhi while Debi Prasad Mishra and Sidhant Mohapatra will meet AIADMK and DMK leaders.
Similarly, leaders like Rabindra Kumar Jena, Nagendra Pradhan and Pinaki Mishra among others are slated to reach out to JDS, JDU, INLD and NC.
Meanwhile, BJP legislatur party leader KV Singh Deo questioned the motive behind the move of the BJD ahead of the elections. “Why the Chief Minister brought the resolution in the last session of this Assembly; why not in the first session of the House after the government formed in 2014?” he stated.