Bhubaneswar, Sep 5 (IANS): Biju Janata Dal President and Odisha Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Naveen Patnaik on Thursday announced that his party will oppose the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the parliament.

“Minority brothers and sisters from different places are meeting me every day. They are informing about suffering from a sense of insecurity. Keeping in view the interest of the minorities, the BJD will oppose the Waqf bill. Peace and harmony are the foundation for development. Odisha is famous for harmony and brotherhood,” Patnaik wrote on X.

Senior BJD leader Muzibulla Khan alias Munna Khan stated that currently the bill has been referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for scrutiny.

“We will wait for the report of the JPC before taking any decision,” Khan said.

He added that the party supremo in his speech during the organisational meeting of the BJD minority cell has firmly stated that the party will oppose the Waqf bill in parliament.

The BJD had earlier backed the ruling BJP government in the Rajya Sabha on many contentious bills in spite of its claims regarding maintaining “equidistance" from both BJP and Congress.

However, the party, after the humiliating defeat in the recent general elections, has changed its stance and decided to play the role of a strong opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The BJD has eight members in the Rajya Sabha while there is no member of the party in the lower house of the parliament.

On the other hand, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has recently reached the majority mark in the upper house of the parliament with 112 members in the house after the results of the Rajya Sabha elections last month.