Utkal Parida

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 31: All eyes are set on the coming municipal polls in Kendrapara where the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), an ally of the ruling the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), has forged ties with the Congress, the main opposition party in the state.

Of the 21 seats at stake in the November 15 polls here, the Congress will contest in 19 whereas the NCP will contest in 2 seats.

NCP state unit president and former MLA Utkal Parida said the alliance with the BJD was over and the party had decided to tie up with the Congress keeping ground realities in mind.

“The assurances given to the people of Kendrapara by the chief minister in the last municipal elections have not been fulfilled. Things here are in a bad shape,” said Parida.

He refused to attach much importance to his party’s understanding with the BJD in the last elections when the NCP contested eight Assembly seats emerging victorious on four. It also contested one Lok Sabha seat unsuccessfully.

“It was at best an adjustment of seats under special circumstances. We went with the BJD in the larger interest of secularism, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had withdrawn supportfrom the Naveen Patnaik government. But things are no more the same,” said NCP state president Parida.

However, NCP legislature party leader Amar Prasad Satpathy refused to echo the sentiments of Parida, exposing rift within the party.

“The adjustment in Kendrapara is an arrangement at local level. It will have no bearing on the party’s alliance with the BJD at the state level,” said Satpathy, making it clear that the NCP was not at all in favour of severing ties with the ruling party.

This, incidentally, is not the first time that differences among senior NCP leaders of the state have come to the fore.

Miffed at the BJD’s attitude towards his party, Parida had last year announced withdrawal of unconditional support to the ruling party only to be contradicted by some other leaders of the party who thought that the state president had jumped the gun.

BJD general secretary Narendra Swain, however, refused to attach much importance to the NCP’s decision to tie up with the Congress in Kendrapara.

“This is a reflection of the differences among NCP leaders of the state. But, it will not have any impact on the electoral prospects of the BJD,” he said.

On the other hand, state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik appeared pleased with the development. “We have made seat adjustments there. We hope for the best possible results,” he said.