The ruling Biju Janata Dal and the BJP are in a direct fight in Odisha, where the chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led party has ruled for two decades and the BJP is hoping to make inroads.
This tussle will be evident in Thursday’s polling when five parliamentary constituencies will vote in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. There are 35 assembly constituencies out of the 147 that are voting simultaneously.
In the last Lok Sabha election, the BJD had registered a landslide victory with 20 out of 21 seats in its kitty and the BJP just one. The BJD secured 117 seats in the previous state election, followed by 15 by Congress, 10 by the BJP, two seats by independent candidates and once each by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Samata Kranti Dal.