The day after the party president and Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly Naveen Patnaik left for New Delhi on a four -day visit on Sunday, a day after hearing the views of senior party leaders about the possible stance of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the Vice Presidential election to be held on September 9.
Party sources said that Patnaik can conduct health check -up in the national capital. He also informed that he can meet BJD MPs before the Vice Presidential elections. Patnaik held a meeting with senior BJD leaders and members of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) on Saturday evening.
In a post on ‘X’ on Sunday, Patnaik said, “Biju Janata Dal has always been at the forefront of protecting the interests of the people of Odisha.” He also said that the PAC meeting focused on going to every house to highlight the ‘disability’ of the state government.
It is believed that in the PAC meeting, the BJD president also heard the views of senior leaders on the subject as to what the party should take in the Vice Presidential election under changed circumstances due to being in opposition in Odisha.
The Rajya Sabha has seven members of the BJD. In the Vice Presidential election, BJD has three options – being absent from voting, supporting National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate CP Radhakrishnan, or supporting ‘India’ alliance candidate B Sudarshan Reddy.
A senior party leader said, “Although the BJD is keeping the same distance from both the NDA and the ‘India’ alliance, but the party president Naveen Patnaik can make a surprise announcement of the party’s stance in the Vice -Presidential election during his Delhi tour.”
Patnaik’s national capital is recently taking place after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call. Modi had inquired about his health and invited him to come to Delhi. Wishing him to be healthy, Modi suggested him to come to Delhi after being discharged from the hospital.
The BJD did not participate in the voting in the 2012 Vice Presidential election, in which Hamid Ansari won. In the 2017 elections, Venkaiah Naidu was elected Vice President and in that election, BJD supported non-Rajag candidate Gopalakrishna Gandhi. However in 2022, BJD supported the NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar.