BHUBANESWAR: Putting an end to the confusion among their party workers, senior leaders of the Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday decided that the alliance will jointly fight the forthcoming panchayat polls.

The decision was taken at a meeting the BJD-BJP Coordination Committee held at Naveen Nivas, the residence of Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik.

The meeting, which was presided over by Mr. Patnaik, was attended by senior leaders of both the parties. However, BJD Secretary General Damodar Rout was not informed about the meeting.

The Committee directed the district units of both the parties to give reports about the tentative arrangements that they would make to ensure victory for the alliance in the coming polls.

As the elections for the 854 posts of members of the 30 Zilla Parishads will be fought on party symbols, the committee decided that there should be agreement on the candidates at the district level.

The reports submitted by the district units of the two parties will be discussed in detail when the Coordination Committee will meet again on January 6.

The areas where the district committees will have difficulty in finalising as to which of the two sides would field candidates for the polls, a final decision on the issue will taken at the Coordination Committee.

In case of the elections for the posts of ward members, sarpanches and panchayat samiti members where there was no use of party symbols, the Committee decided that both parties should try to avoid contests between the workers of the two parties in the polls.

Confusion had been created among the workers of both the parties at the district-level as both the parties had not been able to take a common stand on the question of having alliance to fight the panchayat polls so far.

As the outcome of the coming polls will be crucial for the ruling alliance, the leaders who attended the Coordinate Committee meeting agreed that they have to fight the elections jointly to defeat the main Opposition Congress.

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