BJP parts ways with BJD, withdraws support to Patnaik government

Bhubaneswar, March 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) late Saturday announced it was withdrawing support to the Orissa government headed by Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after their seat-sharing talks failed, ending their decade-old alliance.

'Chief Minister Patnaik should immediately resign since the BJP and BJD had fought the last assembly elections together,' BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra told reporters here.

The development came minutes after the two parties announced they would fight Lok Sabha and assembly elections separately.

Patnaik told reporters that his party would fight the Lok Sabha and assembly elections alone. 'Discussion about seat-sharing were going on for some time both at the state level and in Delhi. We concentrated on winnability on our discussion which was most important. Our talks have failed,' Patnaik told reporters.

'It seems the BJD-BJP will be going separately in coming election,' he said.

The BJD and BJP jointly fought the Lok Sabha polls in 1998, 1999 and 2004 and the assembly elections of 2000 and 2004.

In both assembly polls, the BJD contested 84 seats and BJP 63. In the general elections, the BJD contested 12 seats and BJP nine.

The trouble started when the BJD said it wanted to contest more seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as its popularity had increased. But BJP leaders wanted to maintain the old ratio.

Patnaik and Mitra held talks over seat-sharing that failed to break the deadlock.

--IANS