Four Opp united to fight Panchayat election in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Jan 11 (UNI) Four opposition parties in Orissa today decided to form an alliance to fight the Panchayat elections against the ruling BJD-BJP in the state.

A meeting of the leaders of CPI, CPI(M), Orissa Gana Parishad and Janata Dal(S) held here yesterday resolved to have an alliance to take on the ruling BJD-BJP combine in the Panchayat elections.

The meeting also decided to make the ''corruption of the Panchayat bodies'' a major issue in the campaign to defeat the BJD-BJP and y condemned Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's recent launching of Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana in 11 districts.

Alleging the new scheme aimed at providing election funds to the ruling party candidates, the four Opposition political parties demanded a white paper on the detailed expenditure of the scheme.

CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak, CPI(M) state secretary Janardan Pati, OGP president Bijaya Mohapatra and Janata Dal(S) secretary K C Patra attended the meeting.

Meanwhile,major Opposition Congress has decided to go it alone in the Panchayat election while a series of meetings between the leaders of the ruling BJD and its alliance partner BJP failed to arrive at any conclusion on the sharing of the seats in Zilla Parishad elections.

It appeared that all the three major political parties would fight the elections on their own agenda without entering into any alliance with their like minded parties.

Elections to 87542 wards, 6234 Sarpanches and as many Panchayat Samitee besides, 854 Zilla Parishad members would be held in five phases from February 13 to 21 and the results would be declared on February 22 and 24.

The nomination for the three tier Panchayat bodies has already commenced on January 9 and would continue till January 15.

UNI