BJP senior leader Arun Jaitley along with Chandan Mitra today held discussions with small parties in Odisha to ensure that no votes in the state were divided during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
The duo met Soumya Ranjan Patnaik of Aama Odisha, Kharvel Swain of Utkal Bharat and Braja Kishore Tripathy of Samata Kranti Dal here in this connection.
"We are holding talks with parties which have expressed interest to support BJP. The final decision in regards to the alliance will be taken soon," BJP Odisha spokesman Suresh Pujari said.
All the three leaders were former MPs and have set up their own political parties to oppose both the Congress and the BJD.
Ex-MP S R Patnaik, who is also son-in-law of Assam Governor J B Patnaik, was recently expelled from Congress while Tripathy has formed a new party after being out of the ruling the BJD. Swain was a BJP MP.
"I am ready to make understanding to remain under the NDA alliance," Swain said, while Tripathy opined his party wanted to enter into an alliance to stop division of votes.
However, Aama Odisha leader S R Patnaik, who held discussion with Jaitley, did not speak to media.
Earlier, Jaitley and Mitra held one-on-one discussions with senior state leaders of the party, including state-unit president KV Singhdeo, former minister Biswabhusan Harichandan and former Union minister Jual Oram.
Sources said Jaitley sought the leaders' opinion on forging alliance with small parties in the state.
However, there was no indication regarding discussion with the Odisha Janmorcha headed by Rajya Sabha MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra, who was expelled from BJD in 2012 on charge of anti-party activities.
Mohapatra was, in fact, the person who had initially tried to forge alliance with the BJP.
