The Biju Janata Dal of Odisha led by Naveen Patnaik has announced that the party will support any alliance if the state of Odisha is given special status.
The party's senior public relations correspondent Amar Patnaik stated that the party will support either the National Democratic Alliance or the opposition alliance whoever promises the special status.
Special status
Special status is a section in the governance that gives an added autonomy to states to set up development boards and gets up to 30% central budget's planned expenditure. This status is given to geographically and infrastructure based backward regions such as hill terrains and islands to ensure a fair share of development for them. Currently, 11 states including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have a special status.
