BHUBANSWAR:, March 24 -- The BJP State leadership is disappointed that despite its repeated request Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not prefer to contest elections from the Puri Parliamentary constituency and, instead, decided to stick to his old Varanasi seat.
Party leaders in Odisha had hoped that if Modi had been a candidate here, it would have had a highly favourable impact on winning prospects of other party contestants for both Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the State so that the party could achieve its much-touted claim of "120+" Assembly seats and a commensurate number of Parliamentary constituencies.
Now that Dr Sambit Patra, BJP national spokesperson, has been declared as the party's Puri Lok Sabha nominee, the BJD is quite re...