Dilip Ray joins talks to avert split in BJD

BHUBANESWAR, June 23: The crisis in the Biju Janata Dal continued even as senior leaders of the party including the president Naveen Patnaik...

BHUBANESWAR, June 23: The crisis in the Biju Janata Dal continued even as senior leaders of the party including the president Naveen Patnaik hoped that there would be a solution soon.

Hectic parleys continued throughout the day in the dissident and loyalist camps in view of the stalemate in the party.

The Union Minister of State for Coal Dilip Ray air dashed from New Delhi to Bhubaneswar this morning to bring an end to the crisis in the party arising out of the suspension of five MLAs following the defeat of party candidate AU Singhdeo.

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Ray and other MPs of the party barring Prasanna Acharya and Arjun Charan Sethi had a separate meeting to find out ways for resolving the crisis which has pushed the BJD towards a split. Ray along with other party MPs, Prasanna Patsani, Tathagat Satpathy, Padmanabha Behera, Braja Kishore Tripathy and Prabhat Samantray later called on the party president Naveen Patnaik at the Naveen Nivas to discuss the matter.

The party president Naveen Patnaik, however, expressedconfidence that there would be no split in the BJD because of the crisis.

Talking to The Indian Express today, Patnaik maintained that the crisis would be resolved soon.

Dilip Ray also hoped that the crisis in the party would be resolved soon.

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“We are here to save the party,” he said, adding, “crisis is meant to be resolved.”

The five suspended MLAs along with some dissident MLAs had a parallel meeting in the residence of Bijoyshree Routray to finalise their strategy in case the party president did not revoke the suspension order.

The RJD’s key face and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Yadav, party supremo Lalu Yadav’s son, will again contest from his stronghold Raghopur.

Amid Mahagathbandhan crisis, RJD unveils list of 143, drops 36 MLAs, focuses on ‘M-Y’

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The RJD, lead player of the Mahagathbandhan, released its full list of 143 candidates for the November Bihar Assembly elections. Its key face Tejashwi Yadav will contest from Raghopur, and 41 sitting MLAs have been renominated. The party has dropped 36 sitting MLAs and fielded young leaders, signaling a bid to consolidate its core Muslim-Yadav vote base. The Congress has fielded 60 candidates.

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