It was difficult to carry BJP after Kandhamal, says Naveen

Putting a brave face against the onslaught launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo and the Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik today exuded confidence that the BJD-NCP-CPI-CPI (M) combine will come back to power in the state.

“We will form the government with comfortable majority as most of the BJD candidates will win at the hustings”, Patnaik said in his first ever formal press conference in last nine years in power.

Sharing the dais with the Union agriculture minister and the NCP chief Sarad Pawar, CPI (M) politbureau member Sitaram Yetchury, D P Tripathy, national secretary, NCP, Patnaik said, the BJD will not support either a Congress led or a BJP led government at the Centre after election.

Stating that Orissa has been a peaceful state always, the chief minister said, during the first 9 years of BJD-BJP rule in the state, there was not any serious communal violence. However, in December 2007 and again in August 2008, the communal violence broke out in a terrible way in Kandhamal district, which not only horrified the country but also the world. It made difficult to carry BJP after that, he reasoned referring to the break up the alliance with the saffron party.

He said, the BJD, being a regional party, will focus on just and strong demand for the state. It will work towards achieving the dream of late Biju Patnaik for building a prosperous Orissa. “We have been neglected for 6 decades and we want justice and fair play for Orissa”, he added.

Pawar said, NCP wants the Orissa specific experiment to succeed and hoped the people of Orissa will support the combine. He said, it was a collective decision of the NCP to have tie-up with BJD. “ If we have to keep the country together, secular forces will have to come together”, he added. He, however, clarified that the combine cannot be termed as third front. He assured that NCP will support the Naveen led government in the state for the full term.

CPI (M) politbureau member Sitaram Yetchury said, NCP and the Left parties have come together to offer a secular alternative and the combine will continue to back Naveen Patnaik as the chief minister. On projecting somebody as the prime ministerial candidate, he said, it can only be decided after the elections are over.