15 years after snapping ties, BJD set to return to NDA fold

Fifteen years after it broke a decade-long alliance with the BJP, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is set to return to the NDA fold and fight the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in alliance with the party that had emerged as its principal opponent in recent years.

Sources said the alliance talks were in an advanced stage and both sides have “more or less” reached a seat-sharing agreement for the polls. A formal announcement is expected soon, they said. There is a possibility of the announcement on Thursday, which will mark exactly 15 years from the day Chief Minister Patnaik severed ties with the BJP ahead of the 2009 polls.

This comes little over a month after the JDU led by Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in Bihar.

On Wednesday, both BJP and BJD held separate meetings to discuss the alliance. Patnaik held discussions with senior BJD leaders at his residence in Bhubaneswar in the evening while the BJP leadership held a meeting with party leaders from Odisha at the party headquarters in Delhi.

BJD leader V K Pandian, a former IAS officer considered to be Chief Minister Patnaik’s confidant, also held multiple rounds of discussions with the BJP central leaders.

Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Jual Oram, who attended the meeting in New Delhi, said they have apprised the central leadership of the political scenario in all 147 Assembly seats and 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.

“Since the BJP is a national political party, the final decision lies with the central leadership. Whatever decision the central leadership takes, it will be binding for all. There were discussions about the alliance in the meeting,” Oram told reporters in Delhi.

A statement issued by BJD senior vice