BHUBANESWAR: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the ball rolling for 2019 polls by making a strong pitch for a mandate to BJP during his visit to the State on Monday, the Congress maintained that the electoral scene has now become clear and alleged a tacit understanding between the saffron outfit and the ruling BJD.
With Modi refraining from mentioning the name of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and BJD in his speech where he was critical of the Odisha Government, the Congress seems to have found an opportunity to take on its rival parties.
Launching a scathing attack on the Prime Minister and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for their indifference to the issues concerning the people of Odisha, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik on Tuesday alleged that the two leaders are trying to fool the people by giving false assurances.
“Both the PM and the CM have betrayed people of Odisha. The CM had promised irrigation facilities to 75 per cent farmland in each block of the State. Has the target been achieved even in one block out of the total 314 in the State? He thinks people of Odisha are fools. They (Modi and Naveen) are trying to hoodwink people by taking the name of Lord Jagannath. It has now been proved that there is a tacit understanding between BJD and BJP,” Patnaik said.
However, leaders of both BJP and BJD lashed out at Patnaik for alleging that there is an understanding between the two parties. Stating that the PM exposed deficiencies and inaction of the Odisha Government on several fronts, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Everyone knows who has nexus with whom.”
“Had there been a tacit understanding between BJP and BJP, the PM would not have launched a scathing attack on the State Government,” Pradhan said and added, “Everybody knows who is the demon of corruption in Odisha.”
“MPs and MLAs of which political parties were in jail for the chit fund scam and Minister of which Government was interrogated by the CBI over his involvement in the fraud?” Pradhan asked and added, “Who set the platform for the loot of mineral resources in Odisha and who are the mining mafia?”
Stating that people of Odisha know who patronised the percentage commission (PC), Pradhan said they will give the right answer to all these questions at the right time.
Dismissing all talks of tacit understanding between the two parties, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Deb said the regional party has always maintained equidistance from the Congress and BJP as per party supremo Naveen Patnaik’s policy.
“We are accountable to people of Odisha because they have reposed faith on us for four consecutive terms and we don’t need to answer the BJP or Congress,” he said.
Hitting out at the Congress, Deb said there was a time when the OPCC president himself said Naveen Patnaik set the agenda of Congress. “Even a former OPCC president said the CM was the president of Congress,” he said.