Patnaik to submit memorandum to Prez demanding special status for Odisha (Update:Patnaik)

Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik, who has brought his state's fight for special status to the national capital with a 'Swabhiman rally', today said that over one crore signatures collected by the party in support of this campaign will be submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee with a memorandum.

"We are having a rally, a public meeting for our long standing demand for special category status. We have collected more than one crore signatures of the people of Odisha demanding special category status," said Patnaik.

"Each signature touches almost every household in Odisha and we should be visiting the Rashtrapati, the President of India, this evening with the signatures and the memorandum with our demand for special category status," he added.

Thousands of activists and party workers are attending the rally at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Patnaik had earlier said his resource-rich state deserved an increase in the minerals royalty and the Centre, due to 'political reasons', had ignored the legitimate demands of the state.

In March, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had also held a rally in Delhi demanding special status for his state.

In the rally attended by thousands, Kumar had given the central government a tough warning that no political combination should think of ruling Delhi after the 2014 elections if it ignored Bihar's rights.