BJD to announce its seat-sharing proposals today

New Delhi, Mar 25 (ANI): The Naveen patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) will announce the seat-sharing arrangement with its new allies, the Communist Part of India (CPI), The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Wednesday for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Orissa.

"The joint candidate list will be published tomorrow," senior BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra told reporters Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

The allies have submitted their lists of constituencies to BJD. According to sources, the BJD was reluctant to part away with too many seats for its allies.We are hopeful of arriving at a conclusion by tomorrow," CPI state unit secretary Dibakar Nayak and CPI (M) state secretary Janardan Patil said.

While CPI insisted on getting at least 15 assembly seats, CPI (M) which demanded 22 assembly seats had left the decision on the BJD leadership, sources said.

The 2009 assembly and parliamentary polls in Orissa would happen in two phases. The first phase is scheduled on April 16 and the second on April 22 and 23. (ANI)