Naveen slams Modi in poll campaign rally

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday criticised Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for seeking  votes in the state by evoking names like Biju Patnaik and Lord Jagannath, the presiding deity of the state.

“There are many leaders who want to get votes in the name of Biju Patnaik and Lord Jagannath. But where were they at the time of Phailin, when the state was reeling under the storm?,” he asked at his party’s youth convention in Bhubaneswar, on the occasion of the 98th birth anniversary of his late father and former chief minister, Biju Patnaik.

Apart from the youth rally at Bhubaneswar, BJD had today organised two more mega rallies at Berhampur and Sambalpur targeting the women voters and supporters from among construction workers and kendu leave pluckers respectively.

Using the occasion, the commemoration of Biju Patnaik’s birthday, the BJD leader launched the party’s poll campaign from the platforms of these rallies listing out various welfare schemes of the state government and coming down heavily on the Congress and BJP, his main opponents in the state.

Patnaik highlighted issues like non-revision of mining royalty and denial of special category status to the state by the UPA government at the Centre to pull down Congress. “The state is losing approximately Rs 1800 crore every year for non-revision of mining royalty,” he said.

He slammed the BJP’s “one note, one vote” campaign saying the party leaders have no moral right to ask for notes and votes when they did not show any sympathy towards the Phailin-hit people of the state.

“Several people of Odisha are working in Surat, but the Gujarat chief minister did not come forward to help their families at the time of cyclone and subsequent flood situation,” he said at the party’s women rally at Berhampur today.  

During the Vijaya Sankalp Samavesh of BJP in the city on February 11, Modi had said due to poor economic growth of the state, many Odias are fleeing to Gujarat in search of job opportunities. In retaliation, Patnaik said, his government has improved its economic growth during his rule.

“We have increased the financial condition of our state from an overdraft economy to surplus revenue economy, our plan size has gone up by several folds in past 14 years. The Reserve Bank of India says Odisha is top investment destination. And the recent management of Phailin cyclone has received accolades in the international arena,” he said.

On issues of curbing corruption, Patnaik said his government has taken steps to introduce laws for confiscation of properties of corrupted officials. Besides, Odisha is the first state to pass Lokayukta bill after the passage of Lokpal bill in the parliament, he added.

Reacting to Patnaik’s tirade against Modi, the state BJP unit said that the Odisha Chief Minister had refused to take assistance of Gujarat government at the time of Phailin.