"Will win more seats in Vidhan Sabha and LS polls" says BJD's Sundargarh candidate Dilip Tirkey
Sundargarh: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate from Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat, Dilip Tirkey, expressed confidence in his party winning more seats in the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections.
He also urged the voters to vote in the early hours in view of the heat prevailing in the state.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Tirkey said, "The election campaigning has ended, and we got a very positive response from the people for BJD and our CM, Naveen Patnaik. Everyone wants Naveen Patnaik to become the Chief Minister for the sixth time. Ever since BJD has been contesting, we have won only two assembly seats in the Sundargarh constituency: Rourkela and Raghunathpali. This time we will have many seats in Vidhan Sabha, and the Lok Sabha election result will also be good."
"I want to urge the people of Sundargarh to go out and vote in the early hours, seeing the heat in the later part of the day," the BJD leader added.
Meanwhile, the BJP's sitting MP and candidate from Sundergarh Lok Sabha constituency, Jual Oram, declared that this is his last election.
"I have contested Lok Sabha elections 8 times and Assembly elections 2 times. So, I have contested elections 10 times. I will remain active in politics, but I don't want to contest elections any more. It takes a lot of hard work to contest elections. Since I am a senior leader, I am given a lot of responsibilities. So, I get overburdened. I want to leave it (elections) to the young generation. So, this is my last election," he said.
When asked about the speculations about his name for the CM post if the BJP wins in the state, Oram said that he will follow what the party decides.
"If they tell me, I won't turn it down. But I have no such desire. There are so many capable people like me who can be the CM. But we will follow what the party decides," the BJP leader told ANI.
Hitting out at the CM Patnaik-led state government, Oram said, "There is no democracy in Odisha. There is the rule of bureaucracy here. CM is ineffective. His health is failing. But he is not giving an alternative. VK Pandian is roaming around, but he doesn't listen to ministers. In a way, this is an autocracy, a dictatorship. Their expiry date is June 4."
The assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the BJD-ruled state are being held across four phases, from May 13 to June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
Polling for the first phase was conducted in 28 Assembly seats and four Lok Sabha constituencies on May 13. In the fifth phase, 35 Assembly seats and five Lok Sabha constituencies will vote on May 20, 42 Assembly segments and six Lok Sabha seats on May 25, and the remaining 42 Assembly seats and six Lok Sabha constituencies in the last phase on June 1. The results will be out on June 4.
In the last assembly elections in 2019, the BJD won 112 out of 146 seats, while the BJP had to settle for just 23 seats and the Congress finished at 9.
In the Lok Sabha elections in the same year, the BJD mopped up the lion's share of the electoral spoils, with the BJP and the Congress bringing up the rear. The BJD won 12 seats, the BJP finished a close second at 8, and the Congress bagged just a lone seat.
