9 Opposition parties including RPI meet in Bhubaneswar to take on BJD, BJP in Odisha

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], July 20 (ANI): One day after 26 political parties met in Bengaluru to take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a meeting of the nine political parties that are opposing both the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha was convened under the chairmanship of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Sarat Pattanayak.
Notably, RPI leader Ramdas Athawale is a Minister in BJP led Government in Delhi, but the party Odisha President was among nine parties who participated in this meeting.
Since the 2024 general election is going to be a make-or-break battle for the major political parties, the Odisha unit of the Congress party is preparing its strategies to launch a fight against the BJP and the BJD.
RPI including the left parties attended the meeting, which was held today in a hotel in Bhubaneswar.
The Odisha Congress Campaign Committee chairman Bijay Patnaik, a retired IAS officer, also attended the meeting
“They couldn’t fulfil anything they had promised. The BJP and the BJD are siblings. They have pushed the state into the abyss of backwardness. Protesting against them, all the parties including the CPI and CPI (M) have taken part in the meeting,” OPCC Chief Sarat Patnaik said.
CPI (M) leader Janardan Pati while speaking on the same said that the nine parties that have assembled in the first phase will bring other parties together in the first week of August
“We would like to request the people of the state to unite against the BJD and BJP. The nine parties that have assembled in the first phase will bring other parties together in the first week of August. We solicit the blessings and cooperation of the people of the state,” Pati said.
Echoing the same, Samajwadi Party leader Rabi Behera said, “The farmers’ income has not doubled, nor has the paddy MSP been raised to Rs 2930 per quintal. Opposing this, the anti-BJP and BJD parties would hold a mass convention in the first week of August. Later it would be intensified into a mass agitation against the BJD and the BJP.” (ANI)