Advani offers BJD 25 more seats

In a bid to placate its Orissa ally BJD and persuade it to stay in the NDA fold, BJP's PM candidate L K Advani on Friday offered 25 more assembly seats to the state party in lieu of two more Lok Sabha seats there.

In a bid to placate its Orissa ally BJD and persuade it to stay in the NDA fold, BJP's PM candidate L K Advani on Friday offered 25 more assembly seats to the state party in lieu of two more Lok Sabha seats there.

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Advani spoke to BJD chief Naveen Patnaik on telephone on Friday before leaving for a rally in Kolkata and offered the seats, sources close to the senior BJP leader said.

Since 1998, BJD has contested 84 assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats while BJP has been in the fray putting up candidates in 63 assembly and 9 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Orissa assembly polls are being held along with the general elections on April 16 and 23.

Two MPs, Chandan Mitra and Dharmendra Pradhan, are in Bhuvaneshwar to hold further talks with BJD, the sources said. A few rounds of talks have already taken place. The two are expected to reach an agreement soon, they claimed.

According to reports, BJD has not closed its options towards the Third Front, consisting of Left parties among others. Patnaik had told reporters on Thursday that a decision on the alliance with BJP would be taken in a couple of days.