Bhubaneswar, April 25 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sharpened its focus on defending its fort in western Odisha, where the party is representing in five Lok Sabha seats, apart from making sustained efforts to put up a spectacular electoral performance in most Assembly seats in 2019.

No wonder the saffron party wanted Home Minister Amit Shah to blow the poll bugle for the party from Sonepur, a politically strategic point. Political observers see it as the BJP's big strategy to checkmate the BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is contesting election from the Kantabanji Assembly seat with an aim to stop the saffron surge in that part of the state.

Sounding confident about the party's pollsuccess, Odisha BJP presi...