Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took a dig at the BJD government, which has been in power in Odisha since 2000, and said the expiry of the party’s rule is set to be June 4 when the election results are announced. Addressing two rallies in a day in the state, which will have simultaneous polls for the legislative assembly as well as Lok Sabha, he said the next chief minister will be from the BJP and will be a “son or daughter of Odisha”.
“Once the BJP government is formed, we will implement all our promises and this is Modi’s guarantee. The BJD’s expiry date is June 4 (the day election results will be announced); today is May 6 and, on June 6, the BJP will decide its chief ministerial face. On June 10, the BJP chief minister will take oath in Bhubaneswar. I am here to invite you all to attend the oath taking ceremony,” he said, addressing a massive gathering at chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s home turf of Berhampur in Ganjam district.
In his second rally in Nabrangpur, the PM re iterated, ” Odisha will get it’s first CM from the BJP. The chief minister will be a son or daughter of Odisha and not an outsider”, calling it ‘Modi ki guarantee’ . The PM was regarding to the growing buzz in Odisha that Tamil Nadu born 5 T secretary , V K Pandian is pitching himself as the inheritor of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s legacy, values and chair.
Responding swiftly to the challenge from the BJP’s “star campaigner”, Patnaik, in his characteristic pithy style, said: “They (the BJP) have been daydreaming for a long time.” His close aide and 5T secretary VK Pandian, meanwhile, said it will be Patnaik who will again take oath as the CM on June 9.
Prime Minister Modi and the Odisha chief minister are both on their campaign trail. Without naming Patnaik, with whom PM Modi had shared a warm handshake in Jajpur on March 5 calling him “my friend” ahead of BJD-BJP alliance talks, he said: “I am not like your chief minister, I will write letters to you in Odia.”
Training his guns on the Congress and BJD, he said the people of Odisha have remained poor despite the state being resource- rich and that is because of the sins first committed by the Congress and then by the BJD. Sharpening his attack, particularly on the five-time BJD CM on his home turf, he said: “In Odisha, even small leaders of the BJD have become owners of big houses. Why is that the largest migration of labour happens from the chief minister’s area? Why are posts of doctors vacant in most hospitals? Why do children break away from studies midway? Hinjili does not have adequate cold storage or water supply?”. Naveen Patnaik has been winning from Hinjili since 2000 and has filed nomination from here for the 6th time. Patnaik is also contesting from.a second seat of Kantabanji , in Western Odisha.
After alliance talks broke down between the two parties, the BJD and BJP are locked in a fierce battle as Patnaik aims for a sixth consecutive term while the saffron party is gunning to form its first government in the state. “On June 10, as soon as the BJP’s chief minister takes oath, the same day the government will start working on free treatment of the poor for up to Rs 5 lakh and those above 70 years, irrespective of caste and social status, will be taken care of by Modi, the son of Lord Jagannath,” PM Modi said.
The BJD government also has a popular health insurance scheme, which provides treatment worth Rs 5 lakh to men and Rs 10 lakh to women. Patnaik, who was campaigning in Kalahandi’s Bhawanipatna, kept his speech short and not more than five minutes.
“Tell me, is the BSKY scheme a good scheme? Is the Mission Shakti scheme a good scheme, is the Mamata scheme a good scheme? Is the Laksmi bus good? Is the 5T school good? Is the scholarship scheme for students, Kalia scheme for farmers, Madhubabu’s pension yojana, and redevelopment of Puri temple good? Give Naveen Patnaik your blessings. Give your vote to the conch symbol,” the Odisha CM reeled off all the popular pro-poor schemes of the state government.
He then targeted the opposition without naming anyone. “The opposition is lying. These leaders are shedding crocodile tears. You bless the BJD both for the assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
It was BJD leader and former IAS officer V K Panidan who countertered the PM’s pitch of ‘double engine’ givernment for the first time in Odisha , “ the economies of the states where there are double engine governments have collapsed , you will see in Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, the double engines ran out of the oil that the people had poured into them and came to a halt taking those states back by twenty years”. Pandian further said that 95% of students in Odisha get scholarships compared to 10 – 15% in other states , this is “Naveen engine’. Bless “Naveen engine”, vote for the Conch symbol.
Odisha goes for simultaneous polls and polling in Odisha will be held in four phases beginning May 13th. Four Lok Sabha constituencies – Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Berhampur – and the 28 assembly segments in these will go to polls on 13th May.
Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
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