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Newly-elected Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi (BJP) is now busy in the national capital meeting party heavyweights and getting accustomed with her new role in the Parliament. The bureaucrat-turned-politician talks to Kuldeep Singh of Orisssa POST on her new role. Excerpts: You belong to Bihar. How much difficult was it for you to contest and won elections in Odisha? I’m an Odia daughter-in-law. I think Odia, dream Odia and I speak Odia. I have spent over 20 years in Odisha. I ought to know Odia, if I had to become competent. So, I actually taught Odia to myself in the initial years of my service in Odisha and that finally paid dividends. In fact, I’m very comfortable in Odia currently than Hindi. What are the major issues the women face in Odisha and how will you resolve them? Lack of economic empowerment of our women is one of the major issues. Fifty per cent of the population of Odisha is women. We have a huge number of self-help groups but if you go to women they say

Bhubaneswar: The state leadership of the Congress party, the newly-elected MLAs and leader from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Thursday met and brainstormed on the reasons why the national party performed badly in the recent elections. Senior AICC leader TS Singh Deo met the newly-elected MLAs and also gave his suggestions to boost the party base in the state. The leader said that the party should at least have 30 per cent vote share in the state which has only seen a downward trend in the recent election. The leader also accepted the fact that expecting 70-80 per cent votes from Odisha could be unrealistic. After meeting the party leaders, Deo said, “The vote percentage for the Congress party has come down to 16 per cent in the state. It is obvious now that we have to work hard to improve the party performance in the state in the days to come. I personally suggested that minimum 30 per cent vote share should be there for the Congress party in the state,” adding, “We

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed the refresh button and inducted 20 new faces in his Council of Ministers rewarding giant killers in the Lok Sabha election and dropping some of the most visible faces of his team — finance minister Arun Jaitley, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, tribal affairs minister Jual Oram and commerce minister Suresh Prabhu. While Jaitley’s omission had become public Wednesday as he opted out on health grounds, the absence of Sushma and Prabhu came as a surprise. A bigger surprise, however, was the inclusion of former foreign secretary S Jaishankar into the cabinet. In the last five years, despite serious ailment, Sushma had won accolades for turning foreign office into people’s ministry and Suresh Prabhu was seen as the “to go” man handling key ministries including railways. The tallest among the first-time ministers is party president Amit Shah who was seated third in the row of seniority after the PM and Rajnath Singh. He was fol

Bhubaneswar: The swearing-in ceremony for newly-elected members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly began Thursday. Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator Amar Prasad Satpathy, who was sworn-in as the Pro-tem Speaker Wednesday at Raj Bhavan is administering oath to the newly-elected MLAs. Satpathy was the Chief Whip of the ruling BJD in the 15th Assembly. The event started with Leader of the House Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik taking oath in the House. The event will continue till 5:00pm Friday in the state Assembly, sources said. This ceremony comes a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with his 20-member team of Council of Ministers was sworn-in to office Wednesday. Read more:  Swearing-in Ceremony for Newly Elected MLAs Begins For more details visit us Orissapost.com

Kolkata: ADG CID in West Bengal, Rajeev Kumar moved Thursday the Calcutta High Court seeking the quashing of notice served on him by the CBI in connection with alleged suppression of facts in the Saradha chit fund scam probe. The CBI had sent a notice to Kumar asking him to appear before it for assisting the probe into the case. Justice Pratik Prakash Banerjee granted leave to Kumar’s counsel for filing a petition in the registry of the court and moved the matter for hearing at 2.00pm. Earlier in the day, Kumar’s counsel had moved the vacation bench of the High Court and prayed for leave to file the petition. The state government recently reinstated former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who was removed by the poll panel as Additional Director General, CID, before the seventh phase of polling. The Supreme Court had last week dismissed a plea of Kumar seeking extension of protection from arrest in the multi-crore chit fund scam case. A vacation bench of the apex c

Bhubaneswar: Naveen Patnaik, who won the state elections with a resounding margin, took oath as the Chief Minister for a fifth consecutive term Wednesday. A 20-member Council of Ministers also took oath along with Patnaik at the Idco Exhibition Grounds here. The Chief Minister-designate was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Ganeshi Lal. The newly-elected BJD MLAs also took oath as ministers, including 11 of Cabinet rank, at the swearing-in ceremony attended by a host of dignitaries. Along with Patnaik, 11 Cabinet ministers – two of them new comers, four ministers from the outgoing Cabinet and five former ministers were also sworn-in. Similarly, among the nine ministers of state who were sworn in Wednesday eight were new faces while one was the minister in the previous government. Patnaik and Cabinet minister Ranendra Pratap Swain took the oath in English, Cabinet minister Sudam Marandi took the oath in Santhali languge. The rest took the oath in Odia. C

BJP’s veteran leader Jay Narayan Mishra, who has been elected as the new Sambalpur MLA, is speculated to become the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. In an interview to Orissa POST, Mishra analyses the 2019 elections. Excerpts: Your first reaction to winning Sambalpur Assembly seat? It is now a regular affair. I had earlier served as an MLA for 14 years; again, the voters have entrusted me with the task of serving them. The triumph has come as a responsibility which we have to respect and perform. Now you have a government at the Centre with more BJP MPs and MLAs in state Assemblies. Has the BJP been able to achieve its dream? Now we have been able to get only one engine (BJP government at the Centre), other could be drivers of the engine but we have not been able to get the ‘Double Engine’ governments although we talked about that. What plans you have to ensure that what you do is what other MLAs in Sambalpur could not do? My first priority would be to give impetu

Although the BJP performed well in the Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, its performance in Assembly polls was dismal. Newly-elected BJP MP from Bargarh, Suresh Pujari, talking to Kuldeep Singh of Orissa POST opines that tickets given to leaders who deserted their parties could be one of the reasons of the BJP’s drubbing in Assembly elections. Excerpts: The BJP has won eight Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. What worked in its favour? You need different parameters to win an election. Naturally, this time what went in favour of BJP is that the people of Odisha wanted Narendra Modi to be the Prime Minister for a second time. That worked amazingly for BJP’s success in the state. Although the Modi wave was evident all over, we succeeded in eight seats, five of them in Western Odisha. We also won in Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Bhubaneswar. You ended up winning 23 seats in Assembly. Why? I’m disappointed because of our poor performance in the Assembly elections. We expected more than 10 Lok S

Bhubaneswar: Several top government officials including development commissioner Asit Tripathy Tuesday reviewed the arrangements at the Exhibition Ground, the venue for swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s council of ministers. The oath-taking ceremony will commence at 10.30 am Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Commissionerate Police Tuesday held rehearsal of security arrangements at the ground. Security has been beefed up at the venue and surrounding places with the deployment of 35 platoons of police force and installation of CCTVs at strategic points. The Commissionerate Police has issued traffic advisory for the programme. According to the advisory, the Madhusudan Marg, stretching from Ram Mandir Square to Housing Board Square, will remain closed for the public from 7am to 12 noon Wednesday. No public vehicles without pass will be allowed to ply on Madhusudan Marg during the period. Passes of different colours – pink, green and yellow – have been issued by the

Bhubaneswar: To expedite the process to assess the damage caused by cyclonic storm Fani, the state government Tuesday appointed three senior IAS officers for three worst-affected districts. According to an order of the General Administration (GA) department, additional chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra has been asked to supervise the work in Puri district while industries secretary Sanjiv Chopra and cooperation secretary Krishan Kumar have been told to supervise the damage assessment process in Cuttack and Khurda districts respectively, the order said. Read more:   Three IAS Officers to Assess Fani Damage For more details visit us Orissapost.com

Bengaluru: Nearly a week after facing rout in the Lok Sabha elections, the Karnataka Congress legislators (MLAs) are meeting here Wednesday to ensure the continuation of their year-old coalition government with the Janata Dal (Secular) as its ally, a party official said Tuesday. “The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) is meeting at a star hotel in the city Wednesday in the presence of our senior leader Ghulab Nabi Azad and party’s state unit in-charge K.V. Venugopal to review the poll results and stay united to sustain the government with the JD-S as our partner,” party spokesman K.E. Radhakrishna told IANS here. CLP leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has directed all the 78 legislators to attend the meeting and participate in the deliberations through party’s state unit chief Dinesh Gundu Rao. “The party will take a serious view if any legislator abstains from the meeting without prior intimation or reason for skipping it,” said the official. Contesting with the JD-S u

Bhubaneswar: The team of Naveen Patnaik, who will be sworn in as Odisha Chief Minister for a fifth consecutive term Wednesday, is likely to be a mix of experienced and new faces, according to the BJD lawmakers who were intimated of their induction. Several BJD lawmakers Tuesday said that they had received phone calls from Naveen Niwas, the residence of Mr Patnaik, informing them that they would be sworn-in as ministers. Several senior leaders, who were ministers in the previous government, are likely to be re-inducted into the council of ministers again. They include Ashok Chandra Panda, Pratap Jena, Sushant Singh, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Prafulla Mallick and Niranjan Pujari. Sushant Singh, who was Energy Minister in the previous government, confirmed that he received a phone call to take oath as minister on Wednesday. Former ministers Ranendra Pratap Swain and Padmanav Behera are also likely to be in the new team. Tukuni Sahu, Padmini Dian, Sameer Dash, Naba Kishore Das,

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) plan to field as many as six Rajya Sabha members in the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha appeared to have had a boomerang effect on the party. The party may lose one Rajya Sabha seat if the united opposition fields a consensus candidate against the BJD nominee. While the BJD has already ceded eight Lok Sabha seats out of 20 it had won in 2014, the loss of one Rajya Sabha member would hamper the bargaining power of the party before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre, which is still a minority in the Upper House. Of the 10 Rajya Sabha seats, the BJD currently has nine and Congress one. Out of the six Rajya Sabha MPs, four — Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Anubhav Mohanty, Pratap Dev and Achyuta Samanta — have won in the recently concluded polls. However, Prasanna Acharya and Sarojini Hembram lost. With the victory of four candidates, Odisha will see a vacancy of four Rajya Sabha seats, elections for which are likely to be

Bulandshahr: Former Samajwadi Party MP Kamlesh Balmiki was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Khurja in Bulandshahr, police said. Prima facie it appeared to be a case of poisoning but the details would be known only after the post mortem report comes in, Khurja circle officer Gopal Singh told reporters. According to the police, they had received a call late Monday afternoon from the former MP’s nephew Lalit Balmiki, who informed that his uncle was lying dead inside his room. “His cousins had come down to check on him after he did not revert their calls. They had to force themselves through the first two doors, bolted from inside, before they could enter the room where Balmiki was lying dead,” said Manish Mishra, Bulandshahr Superintendent of Police. The police official said that the house was bolted from inside. It was somehow opened by four members of the family. The iron gate of the room, where Balmiki’s body was found, was also locked from inside and the family

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Monday invited Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi and leaders of major political parties from the country to the oath-taking ceremony of Naveen Patnaik as the regional party’s patriarch is all set to be sworn in as the CM of Odisha for the fifth time May 29. Party spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb told media Monday that major national as well as regional parties and many other personalities from different walks of lives would be invited. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited. We have invited all parties ranging from national to regional for the oath-taking ceremony of our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. We have extended our invitation to the winning MPs and MLAs from across party lines,” he said. The BJD bagged 112 seats in the 146-member Assembly. “A formal invitation has been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office. Besides, leaders of political parties in the state and all elected MPs and MLAs have been invited to the swearing-i

Lucknow: Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing of a close aide of newly-elected Amethi MP Smriti Irani, police said, Monday. “We have arrested three suspects in the Amethi murder case, while two suspects are still absconding,” Uttar Pradesh DGP, OP Singh told reporters here. “As many as seven persons were taken into custody and they were interrogated. Among those, there were three who were linked with the incident. As of now, two accused persons are still absconding and we are tracking them,” the DGP added. Surendra Singh, (50), a former head of Baraulia village, around 25 km from the Amethi district headquarters, was shot at around 11.30 pm Saturday. He was referred to a hospital here, but succumbed during treatment. Surendra worked tirelessly for Irani who conjured up the most stunning result in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls. She defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a constituency which was previously considered a Gandhi bastio

Anubhav Mohanty has been elected as the new Member of Parliament from Kendrapara. Mohanty, an Odia film star, defeated the former MP Baijayant Panda of BJP by a margin of over 6 lakh votes on BJD ticket. In an interview with Orissa POST, Anubhav speaks his heart out. Excerpts: OP: Your first reaction after becoming the MP from Kendrapara? I am really thankful to all those who believed in me. The most important person in my political life has always been Naveen Patnaik Sir who believed in me so much and gave me such a huge responsibility to represent Kendrapara and work for the people there. It had been considered as Biju Babu’s most important work field. People of Kendrapara always loved Biju Babu and after him it is only Naveen Babu. I have vowed to work for the development of the area. OP: All the newly-elected BJD MPs met the party supremo Naveen Patnaik Sunday. What message he gave to the MPs? Since the people of Odisha have decided to choose Naveen Babu as their CM fo

Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress party leader in the state, Kanhu Charan Lenka, Sunday fired salvos against the state party leadership and also blamed them for the election debacles which lead to the humiliating defeat of the party in the state. In a statement to the media Sunday, Lenka blamed Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik and his son Navajyoti Patnaik for ruining the party prospects in the state in the 2019 elections. The veteran leader alleged that the OPCC president did whatever he wanted. Kanhu hinted that the defeat of the Congress was based on conspiracies that were hatched to ensure its bad performance in the elections. He said that the party already seemed to have given up hope even before the elections were over. “He (Niranjan) stood for elections from two places. He also gave party ticket to his son. The father-son duo ensured the party faces loss in the elections of 2019. Time has come to kick out the people who are involved in m

Chandrani Murmu became the youngest Lok Sabha MP in 2019. Her journey from being an engineer to a Parliamentarian is nothing less than spectacular. Murmu discussed future plans with Orissa POST’s Biswa Bhusan Mohapatra. She is just 25 years, 11 months old. She contested from Keonjhar (reserved for ST) LS seat on a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ticket and won against former BJP MP Ananta Nayak by a difference of 66,203 votes. Murmu completed her B-Tech from a city-based private institute in 2017. You became the youngest MP in Lok Sabha. Have you ever thought about this? Really, I never, in my wildest dream, thought I would get an opportunity to become a Member of Parliament at this age. To whom do you want to give the credit for your success?  First upon all, I want to thank Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for noticing my potential to become a Member of Parliament. I would also like to thank the people of my constituency for having faith in me. I will try my best to discharge the r

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal Sunday invited Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik to form the next government in the state. This follows Patnaik’s meeting with Lal at Raj Bhavan where the BJD supremo staked claim to form government in the state for the fifth consecutive time. Earlier in the day, Patnaik was elected the BJD legislature party leader by the newly elected MLAs in a 45-minute long meeting held at the party headquarters here. “I am very grateful to the MLAs for unanimously electing me as the BJD legislature party leader. We will work hard for the state’s development,” said the Chief Minister, who will be sworn in for a fifth consecutive term May 29. According to the party, the swearing-in ceremony will be held on the said date at the Exhibition Ground here. It is expected that over 5,000 people would attend the ceremony where Patnaik along with his council of ministers would take the oath of office and secrecy. Read more:  Governor Invites

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister designate YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Sunday alleged that there was a big land scam in new state Capital Amaravati as his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu had resorted to “insider trading”. Addressing a news conference in the National Capital, he said Naidu and his “benamis” (proxies) bought vast tracts of lands at throwaway prices in Amaravati by misleading people that the state Capital will come up at other places. Terming it as a sensational scam, Reddy said the lands of Naidu and his “benamis” were also exempted from land pooling under which lands of farmers and others were acquired. Reddy’s YSR Congress Party stormed to power in the state with a landslide victory Thursday, winning 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly.Jagan, as the YSRCP leader is popularly known, is set to take oath as the chief minister May 30. He said he would look into the scams that happened during Telugu Desam Party (TDP) rule. “I have nothing against Chandrababu

Ahmedabad: Indicating that Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing to conquer West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday that the people in the eastern state are wishing for Gujarat-like development. Modi recalled that ever since the 2014 elections, the story of Gujarat’s development initiatives had reached all corners of the country even before he reached various places for campaigning. “I watched a social media interview of an elderly woman in West Bengal where she kept on repeating Modi-Modi. But when asked who she will vote for, she said she will vote for the communists,” he said. “When she was asked why, since she wanted Gujarat like development, she said this is Bengal, we can’t say all this publicly, you never know what happens to you,” Modi said during his first speech in Gujarat after the 2019 landslide victory in the Lok Sabha battle. The BJP, dramatically, improved its Lok Sabha tally in the state from two seats in the 2014 elections to 18 seats this time f

Bhubaneswar: Governor Ganeshi Lal Sunday invited Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik, who led the party to an emphatic victory in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha, form the next government in the state. Earlier, senior party leader Bikram Keshari Arukh proposed the name of Patnaik as the leader of the legislature party and all the 111 MLAs elected in the just-concluded Assembly election, seconded and supported the proposal passed at the party’s headquarters here. Soon after the meeting, the Naveen rushed to the Raj Bhavan to stake claim to constitute his government and Council of Ministers. Acting on the plea, Governor Ganeshi Lal invited Naveen to form his government. Earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar handed over the list of winning MLA candidates to the Governor. The swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers will take place May 29 at the Exhibition Ground in the city. Meanwhile, senior BJD leade

Bhubaneswar : The glamour quotient had mixed results in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections this year. The big winner among stars is Odia actor and Kendrapara Lok Sabha candidate Anubhav Mohanty who is about to defeat seasoned politician Baijayant Panda of the BJP who, when last reports came in, was trailing by a margin of around 1,30,000 votes. votes. Going by trends so far, the long-standing Parliamentarian from Kendrapara is behind BJD’s actor-turned-politician Anubhav Mohanty. The battle for Kendrapara is one of the most crucial in the state considering that it was a fight between BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, and his estranged friend Baijayant Panda. Before the election Panda was expected to be the winner as he had represented Kendrapara in the 15th Lok Sabha as a BJD MP. He had been to Parliament from Odisha several times before that. Panda also had the support of film actors like Babushan Mohanty who, while campaigning for Panda, declared

Bhubaneswar: All set to form the government in Odisha for the fifth time in a row, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked Thursday the people, particularly women, for their overwhelming support to BJD in the Assembly polls. “I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people of our state who showered their blessings time and again on Biju Janata Dal,” Patnaik told reporters as his party is again poised for a landslide victory in Assembly elections. “I want to thank particularly the women of Odisha who came out in large numbers to vote for us,” the BJD president said while thanking the leaders and workers of the regional party. To a query on BJP candidates leading in several Lok Sabha constituencies, Patnaik said “I have congratulated them this morning. I rang up the Prime Minister to congratulate him.” Read more:  Naveen Thanks People of Odisha For more details visit us Orissapost.com

Bhubaneswar: A day before the announcement of results of simultaneous polls, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik Wednesday admitted that his party will slip to third position this time. Speaking to reporters here, Niranjan said he is in doubt whether the Congress will emerge as the principal Opposition party in the state Assembly. “The Congress will be the main Opposition party in the Assembly if the BJP joins hand with the BJD,” he said with a smiling face. Commenting on performance of the party in this election, he said, “The Congress will fare better in south and the coastal Odisha districts. But winning seats in western Odisha appears remote. However, we will open account in both Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the region.” The state Congress president was unable to name which LS seat in the western Odisha they are going to win. It appears that Niranjan is confused over winning two MLA seats — Bhandaripokhari and Ghasipura – he contested.

New Delhi: The BJP parliamentary board Thursday passed a resolution hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and thanking people for endorsing the party’s agenda. All the newly-elected BJP MPs may meet Saturday to elect Modi as their leader, following which he will meet President Ram Nath Kovind to stake claim to form the new government, party sources said. The oath-taking of the new government is likely to be held May 29, sources said. The party in its resolution described the victory as a positive mandate in support of Modi’s pro-poor policies, clear stand on national security and its mantra of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’, which boosted India’s profile in the world. The party’s parliamentary board also attacked the opposition for its efforts to spread confusion over the electoral process, an apparent reference to its doubts on EVMs, and said people have rejected its negative agenda. It also thanked people of West Bengal for supporting it despite ‘violence’ targetin

Hyderabad: The ruling Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, winning lower-than-expected nine seats as a resurgent BJP sprang a surprise emerging victorious in four constituencies Thursday. The Congress also put up a decent show, securing three seats in the state which has 17 constituencies. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha crashed to a shock defeat in Nizambad, from where she sought re-election. Kavitha lost by 71,057 votes to BJP’s D Arvind. She had bagged the seat by a margin of 1,67,184 votes in 2014. The TRS had an electoral understanding with AIMIM and the two parties had repeatedly expressed confidence of winning all the seats. The final outcome coupled with the NDA securing majority on its own in Lok Sabha dashed Rao’s hopes of a key role for himself in national politics. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda) and its working president Revanth Reddy (M

Bhubaneswar: The dreams of a number of senior leaders and former legislators who shunned the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to join the saffron brigade seemed to have shattered Thursday as election results showed them their last minute decision was a not a fruitful attempt. As per the latest trends of the Lok Sabha as well as the Assembly Election, till the time of filing the story, the fate of many such party deserters seemed to be going nowhere. Former Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda who left the regional party to join the saffron brigade was one of the latest victims of the people’s mandate. Despite his tall claims of people’s massive support in his constituency, people voted against Panda and favoured BJD’s Anubhav Mohanty. Almost throughout the day, Panda seemed trailing behind Anubhav who was chosen by the regional party to leave Rajya Sabha and contest against the beleaguered former BJD MP from Kendrapara, Baijayant Panda. Panda was earlier suspended from the party while later he

Bargarh/Hinjili: Biju Janata Dal supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is sitting comfortably in both the Assembly constituencies from which he is contesting. Patnaik is leading by a margin of over 24,000 votes over his nearest rival BJP’s Sannat Kumar Gartia in the Bijepur Assembly seat. At the time of writing this copy Patnaik has got 42, 796 votes while Gartia is second with 17,879 votes. Ripunath Seth of the Congress is a poor third with 5, 190 votes. Similarly, Patnaik is also doing well in Hinjili Assembly seat. Read more:    CM Naveen Patnaik Leads Both in Bijepur, Hinjili For more details visit us Orissapost.com

Bhubaneswar: With the air of anticipation, predictions and excitement, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has made arrangements for easy and comfortable viewing of the counting process and live updates on results for the Capital citizens. While the Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha has installed a 10X12 feet LED screen at Biju Patnaik Park (Forest Park), BDA has taken up the sitting arrangements for 400 people. “There is excitement among the people for the results of the simultaneous polls. Observing this we have made seating arrangements for the people. Also, there are arrangements to provide them proper cover from the scorching heat. Drinking water will be supplied to the people who will come and listen to the discussions and live updates inside the sought-after green recreational zone in the city,” a source at the BDA said. A giant LED screen has been put up near the main entrance of the Biju Patnaik Park. The LED screen will be placed atop a raised platform. The

Bhubaneswar: A day before the announcement of results of simultaneous polls, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik Wednesday admitted that his party will slip to third position this time. Speaking to reporters here, Niranjan said he is in doubt whether the Congress will emerge as the principal Opposition party in the state Assembly. “The Congress will be the main Opposition party in the Assembly if the BJP joins hand with the BJD,” he said with a smiling face. Commenting on performance of the party in this election, he said, “The Congress will fare better in south and the coastal Odisha districts. But winning seats in western Odisha appears remote. However, we will open account in both Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the region.” The state Congress president was unable to name which LS seat in the western Odisha they are going to win. It appears that Niranjan is confused over winning two MLA seats — Bhandaripokhari and Ghasipura – he contested. H

Bhubaneswar: The election results to be declared Thursday will decide the fate of 174 Lok Sabha and 1127 Assembly candidates including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Counting of votes for 21 Lok Sabha and 146 Assembly seats will be declared Thursday. However, election to Patkura Assembly seat has been put off. As the general election witnessed a straight fight between Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), all eyes are set on the performance of the two parties. Congress, however, is likely to slip to the third position in the State. A day before the counting of votes, Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik conceded that the party will not be able to form a government on its own in the state and may lose opposition status also. As per predictions made by various pollsters, there will be a close fight in over two dozen Assembly seats and four to five MP constituencies. People are keen to know the fate of heavyweights including Naveen Patnaik, Cabinet minis