Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Leader of the Opposition Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday evening held a meeting with 10 party MLAs at his residence here to deliberate on preparations and strategies for the forthcoming panchayat elections in Odisha. The discussions centred on strengthening the party’s grassroots organisation, addressing constituency-specific concerns, and chalking out effective public outreach initiatives.
Patnaik stressed the importance of leveraging growing public dissatisfaction with the BJP-led state government by highlighting its alleged anti-people policies and unfulfilled promises. He urged the MLAs to step up direct engagement with citizens, expose the government’s shortcomings, and continue serving the people in keeping with the BJD’s core principles. The meeting also reviewed the progress of development works in the respective constituencies and took stock of issues affecting farmers, including the status of paddy procurement.
The MLAs present at the meeting were Pratap Keshari Deb (Aul), Bibhuti Bhushan Balabantaray (Jatni), Sarada Prasanna Nayak (Rourkela), Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack), Jogesh Kumar Singh (Sundargarh), Adhiraj Mohan Panigrahi (Khariar), Sunil Mohanty (Puri), Rupesh Panigrahi (Paralakhemundi) and Rohit Joseph Tirkey (Biramitrapur).
The interaction forms part of a series of consultative meetings being held by the BJD supremo in recent weeks to reorganise and energise the party following its transition to the opposition after the 2024 Assembly elections.
