BHUBANESWAR: THE Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has strongly reacted to the criticism of Naveen Patnaik Government’s performance by BJP national president Amit Shah.
Reacting to Shah’s statement that BJD is driven by dynastic politics, BJD spokersperson and Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Deb said, there are many examples of BJP promoting family politics. He gave examples of Rajnath Singh and his son Pankaj Singh, Biswabhusan Harichandan and his son Prithviraj Harichandan, Raman Singh and his son Abhisek Singh and many other families who are in influential positions in the BJP. Referring to Shah’s allegation that the BJD Government is a burnt out transformer, Deb said the regional party has many mechanics who set the transformer right. “BJD has many mechanics to set the transformer right. Shah should not worry about that,” he said.
Deb also questioned Shah’s assertion of winning 120 seats in the next Assembly election in Odisha. “Shah came last time and announced BJP will win 120 Assembly seats. But the BJP was in third position in the Zilla Parishad zone in the constituency of Basant Panda, State president of the party ,” he said. Elections will be held in Gujarat before the Assembly poll in Odisha, Deb said and challenged BJP to win three fourth majority in his own state. “Let the BJP win three-fourth majority in Gujarat Assembly polls. We will take his claim of winning 120 seats in Odisha seriously only after that,” he said.