Patnaik rejects Modi's claim, says BJD will perform very well

Rejecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that BJP will repeat Tripura-like result in Odisha, ruling BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday said the regional party will perform "very well" in the coming simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state.

"We(BJD) will do very well in the elections. I have said it before ... you will see," Patnaik said replying to a question on the prime minister's statement on Sunday that Odisha will have poll results like Tripura.

Modi had said on Sunday that Odisha will be the second Tripura, where BJP had won a comfortable majority in the last assembly elections and formed the government dismantling the 25 years of Left Front rule.

"Odisha will surprise everybody in the country this time ... It will be a second Tripura," Modi said, implying that BJP is poised to post an impressive show in Odisha against BJD which has been in power in the state for the past about two decades in the elections this month.

Modi said this while addressing Main Bhi Chowkidar programme via video conferencing from Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.

Talking to fishermen of Mahakalpada in Kendrapara district through video-conferencing, Modi had said that the BJP has a good base in Odisha and he was quite impressed by the huge turnout of the people and their unbridled enthusiasm during his recent visit to Odisha to campaign for his party candidates.

Modi is scheduled to hold two election rallies in the state in the week on April 2 in Kalahandi and April 6 in Sundergarh.

Patnaik had on the other hand claimed at his party's campaign at Nayagarh on March 24 that BJD will win all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming polls.

BJP has set the target of winning at least 120 of the 147 assembly seats in Odisha in the coming elections.

In 2014, BJP had won only ten of the state's 147 assembly seats and one of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.