Bhubaneswar, March 9: Two days after Naveen Patnaik broke the 11-year alliance with the BJP, the saffron party has decided to field the party’s star campaigner, Narendra Modi, to expose the Orissa chief minister’s act of “betrayal”.

The BJP, which fought three Lok Sabha and two Assembly elections in the state sharing seats with BJD, would now contest from all the 147 Assembly and 21 parliamentary seats alone, said state party president Suresh Pujari and legislature party leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan after returning from New Delhi today.

The party believes Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, had an impeccable image to turn the western coastal state into one of the most developed ones, and Naveen, known for his efficient governance, could only be defeated through rigorous campaigning.

However, the BJD leadership, downplayed the impact of Modi’s campaign. “His Hindutva formula will fail in Orissa,” said BJD spokesman Jagneswar.

The BJP has decided to start campaigning for the general elections here on March 16, exactly a month before the first phase of polls. Its kick-off rally, “Vijay Sankalp Samavesh”, would be addressed by Sushma Swaraj, besides other senior leaders, said Pujari.

“The alliance was formed to keep the Congress out of power. Naveen now owes an explanation to the people why he parted ways unilaterally,” Pujari added.

Declaring that breaking the alliance was pre-planned, Pujari said Naveen was pretending to hold seat-sharing talks with the BJP, while carrying on secret negotiations with the Left and other parties. “While we always stood solidly behind Naveen during every crisis, he betrayed us,” said Harichandan, who was industries, rural development and law minister in the state cabinet.

“It’s a question of morality and Naveen should have resigned on the day he broke the decade-long alliance with the BJP. But he wanted to cling on to power with the help of parties which were his ‘foes’ for more than a decade so that he could misuse official machinery and manipulate election results,” Harichandan alleged.

“Why is the BJD hobnobbing with parties like the NCP, JMM and the Left, when they are confident of winning more than 120 out of the 147 Assembly seats?” asked the BJP leaders.

The leaders said they would continue their fight to “safeguard Orissa’s interest” and keep the Congress out of power. “We will expose the anti-people policies of the Congress-led government and opportunist stand of the BJD during campaigning,” they said.

Asked who will be their No. 1 enemy, Pujari said: “It’s Congress. BJD, which has betrayed us as well as the people, will be the No. 2.”

In a further jolt to the BJP, state planning board deputy chairman and senior party leader Bed Prakash Agrawal today quit the party and joined the BJD citing “neglect” of his Kendrapara district.

Agrawal was elected to the Assembly on a BJP ticket in 2000 and was a minister in the coalition government. However, he was defeated in the 2004 election and later appointed deputy chairman of the state planning board.

Pujari said they were not perturbed by this development. “Those who have lost their seats because of delimitation or reservation of constituencies, are quitting for selfish gain. That will not affect our poll prospects.”