It should be the endeavour of all political parties to ensure a one-to-one contest against the Congress in the Assembly elections, due in a little over a year's time, he told newspersons here.

Mohapatra, who is also chairman of the BJD's political affairs committee, said during his recent week-long visit to New Delhi, he had discussions with several national leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in this regard and everybody had appreciated the idea.

The results of the recent Assembly elections, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, were an eye-opener, he said. If the non-Congress parties realised the ground reality and surrendered their egos, it would be easier to defeat the corrupt Congress regime in the State, he said.

The BJD leader said he held discussions with Union Home Minister L KAdvani, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde and Haryana Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala. He would have another round of discussions with national leaders of non-Congress parties in the second week of this month, he said.

Mohapatra, whose differences with the BJD president and Union Minister for Steel and Mines Naveen Patnaik over the latter's style of functioning is well-known, said he was confident that his party chief would appreciate the idea of a one-to-one contest against the Congress in the State.

Replying to a question, he said he was hopeful of making both the BJP and the Left parties agree to the proposal.

Opposition parties should combine against the Congress regime while keeping their own agendas intact, he said.

The BJD leader said although the BJD-BJP combine achieved spectacular success in the last Lok Sabha elections, the situation in an Assembly election was different. Unlike in the Lok Sabha elections, smaller political parties docount in an Assembly election, he said.

Mohapatra, who had in the past criticised his own party for its failure to take up a political programme against the Congress, said he would undertake a 15-day padayatra in different parts of the State beginning January 23, the birthday of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to arouse people's consciousness against the J B Patnaik Government.

Alleging that the law and order situation, economic scenario and corruption at the government level in Orissa was shocking, Mohapatra said people in the rural areas were not only suffering but were also tortured by the Congress mafia and bureaucratic machinery.

He claimed the World Bank had recently submitted an adverse report on the State's fiscal situation. The debt burden was mounting and the State was on a fiscally unsustainable path, he quoted the report as saying.

Mohapatra referred to recent violent incidents in the Ramgiri-Udayagiri town of Gajpati district of Orissa involving tribals and Christians and said he hadapprised the Union Home Minister about the details of the incident and sent to him a copy of the report of the House Committee of the State Assembly on the incident.

However, he regretted that the BJD's Lok Sabha members did not do anything to raise the matter in the House and force a discussion on the problem.