Bhubaneswar:
It is Bees or Ek Sou Bees? That is what wondering even senior aides attached to BJP national president Amit Shah.
A senior aide accompanying Shah in the Business Class in the flight to Bhubaneswar on September 6, asked a junior aide sitting in the Economy Class what is the number of BJP MLAs in Odisha. Ten, replied the junior aide who has some knowledge about party’s Odisha affairs.
Then the senior aide wondered whether it is Bees or Ek Sou Bees that Shah is talking about?
India Whispers over heard while a senior Congress leader sitting besides the junior aide was whispering.
Shah during his earlier visit to the state announced that BJP will form the government in Odisha with 120 seats. Even though BJP leaders like the state president Basanta Panda, and union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan are confident that the number would is achievable, many in the party are sceptic about it.
Eversince Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said that he has a doubt that the BJP will get 120 seats in the coming assembly elections, the chorus is becoming shriller. The union tribal affairs minister, Juel Oram, is not convinced. So also, party’s national executive member Bijaya Mohapatra and Rourkela legislator Dilip Ray. The leader of the BJP legislative party in the state assembly and the former state president KV Singhdeo has his own figure. Giving an interview to OTV he has said it will be 110.
Interestingly, the BJP has sufficed the 120 with a + symbol. After Shah announced 120 seats, the rival BJD wanted to know which are the 27 seats where the BJP will lose. It also posed whether Basanta Panda, Dharmendra Pradhan are not in the 27 unlucky seats? Realizing the mistake, the BJP has sufficed the number 120 with a + symbol. During the visit of Shah early this month, all the hoardings had the symbol + after 120.
