Bhubaneswar: BJD president Naveen Patnaik held a meeting with his party’s nine Rajya Sabha MPs on Monday and asked them to emerge as a “vibrant and strong” opposition in the Upper House of Parliament during its upcoming session that would begin on June 27.

At the meeting, Patnaik also asked the lawmakers to raise issues concerning the state’s interests in a befitting manner.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the party’s leader in Rajya Sabha Sasmit Patra said, “The BJD MPs this time will not be confined to speaking on issues only, but are determined to agitate if the BJP-led government at the Centre ignores Odisha’s interest.”

Besides raising the demand for special status to Odisha, the BJD MPs will raise the issues of poor mobile connectivity and low density of bank branches in the state, he said.

“Odisha’s demand for revision of coal royalty has been ignored by the Centre for the last 10 years. This is causing great loss to the people of the state who are deprived of their rightful share,” he added.

Maintaining that the nine MPs in Rajya Sabha will act as a strong opposition, Patra said Patnaik has given clear instructions to fight for the rights of the state’s people in the Parliament.