Congress promises free power for poor on last day of campaign

The Congress and BJD are fighting the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation elections

With the high voltage campaigning for the January 8 elections to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) ending today, opposition Congress promised free power to the people living below poverty line while ruling BJD assured voters of overall development.

"If Congress wins the BMC polls, the poor people using up to 200 units of electricity will be given free power," Union Minister Srikant Jena announced besides opening English medium schools for the children of slum dwellers.

Terming Congress's announcement of free power to poor as a political gimmick, energy minister Arun Kumar Sahu said, "The Congress knows that they are not getting elected in the BMC elections at any cost. Therefore, it is a pure political gimmick."

Congress also accused the BJD government of handing over the education system to the education mafia in the state capital.

Meanwhile, the party also sought clarification from the BJD government about utilisation of Rs 1,000 crore for infrastructure development of BMC area. Though the Congress led UPA government provided Rs 1,000 crore, the state BJD government failed to make proper utilisation of the funds, it said.

Today being the last day of campaigning for the BMC elections all parties, including the ruling BJD headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik left no stone unturned to woo voters.

While Patnaik was sweating it out on a daily basis, the mainstay of the ruling party's campaign were the ministers, party MLAs and film actors.

Odia film star Anubhav Mohanty and Uttam Mohanty were campaigning for BJD candidates in wards while Patnaik himself skipped official work to mingle with people.

The Congress campaign was being spearheaded by Union minister Srikant Jena, PCC president Jayadev Jena and BJP's state president K V Singhdeo and senior leader B B Harichandan.