More than 10,000 people have applied for Biju Janata Dal (BJD) tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha and the Odisha assembly elections which will be held simultaneously, a senior party leader said.
The Odisha assembly has a strength of 147 MLAs while there are 21 Lok Sabha MP seats in the state.
"More than 10,000 people, including many professionals, have applied for party tickets for the coming polls", BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das said in a post on X.
"We strongly believe that BJD is moving towards a historic victory in this election with the blessings of 4.5 crore people of Odisha", Das said.
The BJD leader claimed that the people of Odisha have already made up their minds to install Naveen Patnaik as the chief minister for the sixth consecutive time.
"The BJD is all set to register a massive victory in the upcoming elections", Das claimed.
The BJD leader claimed that all the national-level survey reports in recent years have found Naveen Patnaik as the number one Chief Minister of the country.
Das said the regional party has won more than 52 per cent of the votes in the 2022 panchayat elections.
"There should be no doubt that the BJD is the number one political party in the state", he said, claiming that Patnaik is the tallest leader in the state.
BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said "Many people have applied for the party tickets. But the candidates will be selected on the basis of winning ability, loyalty to the party and some other parameters."
Odisha BJP vice-president Lekhashree Samantasinghar ridiculed 10,000 applications for BJD tickets and said, "Many people may appear for examination, but some selected few get first class. Similar is the situation. BJP candidates will crack the 2024 examination."
Congress Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar claimed that there is a lot of "resentment" in the BJD and many senior leaders are in contact with us. They may join Congress soon, he said.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattnayak said as many as 3,000 people including some professionals have also applied for Congress tickets in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections.
