BHUBANESWAR, January 9: The honeymoon between Naven Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Orissa seems to be over after three rounds of non-productive talks.Rattled by the non-cooperative attitude of the state BJP, the BJD leadership in the state is toying with the idea of alliances with smaller outfits, even as senior BJD leaders are set to go to Delhi on January 14 for talks with BJP's central leadership.According to sources, the BJD leaders are in touch with other secular parties like Laloo Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samata Party and other smaller political parties. However, developments in this regard are still at a nebulous stage. The developments in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh where seat sharing between BJP and Telugu Desam Party (Laxmi Parvathi) developed hitches at the last minute have also forced the BJD leadership to be more cautious.Although the central leadership of the BJP was quite enthusiastic about a poll understanding with the new regional party, the state leadership of the party does not seem to be amused over the developments.Long used to remain inside a cocoon, the state BJP leadership, sources alleged, is apprehensive about an alliance with the BJD lest it diluted its hold over the party.The hand of the state leadership of the Congress creating confusion between the two poll partners cannot also be ruled out.Sources alleged that an influential "syndicate" in the state BJP left no stones unturned to jeopardise the prospects of the BJP-BJD alliance. In fact the state leadership of the BJP which participated in three rounds of talks staked claims to seats in which the party did not have any base much to chagrin of the BJD leadership. However, it is also a fact that the BJD, which was floated only last month does not have much of a base in many constituencies.A senior leader of the BJD requesting anonymity told The Indian Express, "We have decided not to have any more talks with the state BJP leadership here. We know talks cannot progress further with the state leadership."A group of senior BJD leaders including president Naveen Patnaik, chairman of the political affairs committee of the party Bijay Mahapatra, leader of the BJD legislature party Ramakrushna Patnaik and former Union minister Dilip Ray would leave for New Delhi on January 14 next to discuss about seat adjustments with the central leadership of the BJP.BJD sources said that talks were likely to be held between the two parties at New Delhi on January 15 and 16 before a formal announcement of seat adjustments.During the three rounds of talks, the BJD and BJP leaders could agree on only nine out of the total 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The rest of the 12 seats remained disputed with both the parties claiming those.
