Ama Odisha, Utkal Bharat to fight polls together

Failing to forge a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, two local political outfits like the Ama Odisha and the Utkal Bharat today announced to join hands and contest the ensuing general elections for Lok Sabha and Assembly in Odisha.
"We will field candidates in all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly segments in the state. The candidates of both Utkal Bharat and Ama Odisha will fight the elections under the leadership of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik," Utkal Bharat president and former MP Kharvel Swain said while addressing a joint press conference with Patnaik.
Though Swain hesitated to admit that his Utkal Bharat has merged with Patnaik's Ama Odisha party, he said "We will not use our party symbol and our candidates will fight the elections on Ama Odisha's election symbol of Pot."

Both Swain and Patnaik had participated in the discussion with the BJP central leadership on seat sharing, but the BJP refused to enter into an alliance with the two parties as they demanded more seats, BJP sources said.
Swain, also a former BJP MP, alleged that both Ama Odisha and Utkal Bharat have been "betrayed" by the BJP.
"They (BJP) told us to wait for some time to give a final shape to the proposed alliance. All of a sudden, the BJP announced its candidates without giving us any indication," Swain said replying a question.
"We will together fight the elections to defeat the BJD, as Congress has failed to emerge as an alternative and BJP is reluctant to oust Naveen Patnaik," he said.