BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra's son Arabinda Mohapatra joins BJD in Odisha

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], March 7 : Arabinda Mohapatra, son of former Odisha minister Bijoy Mohapatra on Thursday joined Biju Janata Dal in the presence of party president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
VK Pandian, Chairman 5T was also present on the occasion.
Arabinda Mohapatra's father Bijoy Mohapatra was a minister in the Biju Patnaik government. Later he founded Odisha Gana Parishad in 2001 which was subsequently merged with NCP. Bijoy Mohapatra later joined the BJP.
Earlier, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) held an extensive discussion with senior leaders of the party on the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.
"An extensive discussion was held under the leadership of BJD President and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik with the senior leaders of the party today regarding the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections," a press release from the BJD stated.
Odisha has 21 Parliamentary constituencies. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) got the maximum number of seats followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. The BJD won 12 seats, BJP bagged 8 and the Congress won one seat.
The state has 147 Assembly constituencies. The BJD swept the state in the last polls, winning 113 seats in the 2019 elections held simultaneously with the general elections. The BJP came a distant second with 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) with 1 and an Independent candidate bagging another seat.