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BJP asks BJD to surrender seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party Orissa unit has questioned the preparedness of its poll partner Biju Janata Dal to face the coming Lok Sabha elections in the state.

The party demanded that the BJD surrender some of the seats it contested in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.

''The BJD is weak in at least five seats and is not politically active. The BJP, on the other hand, has been launching a vociferous campaign against the ruling Congress government in the state and is politically more acceptable to the people,'' the state unit claimed.

''Our government had lost just by one vote in the Lok Sabha. Every seat is important for us,'' party vice-president Prashant Nanda and spokesman Shymananda Mahapatra told the media yesterday.

They said the BJP state unit had asked BJD president Naveen Patnaik to review the winning prospects in all 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state but he had been avoiding a discussion. They threatened to put up their own candidates in some more constituencies if the later did not agree to their proposal.

UNI

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