BHUBANESWAR: Expressing his disgust with party leaders who failed to deliver in the panchayat polls, Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik said that the performance of the party in certain districts needs serious introspection.
"I am seriously concerned at the poor performance of the party in certain districts in the recently concluded panchayat elections. I am not very happy with some MLAs who could not perform well. There may be certain specific reasons for their failure, which needs to be seriously introspected," he said addressing the meeting of the BJD Legislature Party (BJDLP) today.
The Chief Minister, however, said party leaders should not be disheartened by the reverses. "I advise you to take this signal seriously as a wake-up call and get reconnected to the people and workers at the grassroots level," he said.
According to unofficial results Zilla Parishad polls received here, the BJD is likely to lose about 200 seats compared to the 2012 panchayat poll tally of 651 ZP zones. However, the BJP performance has improved unexpectedly as the party's tally is likely to cross 300 ZP seats compared to only 36 seats in 2012 panchayat polls.
Stating that every leader should do some serious introspection as to what went wrong, he asked the MLAs to make sure that all government welfare and development activities/programmes reach the people properly and effectively.
He, however, said that the people do not want a change as has been proved by the results. "Opposition parties are way behind the BJD. So the underlying message is people do not want a change. They
want you to perform even better in the areas where you have not met their expectations," he said.
Humility and simplicity are required in thought and action when dealing with people, he said adding "I hope you will never let down the belief and faith that the people of Odisha have in us."
Criticising Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh for misguiding the people on the Mahanadi river water dispute during his panchayat poll campaign, Naveen said Singh suppressed the fact that his state is taking the water of Mahanadi illegally and arbitrarily violating the basic norms of a federal set up with active partnership of the Centre. He asked the MLAs to raise issues like the Mahanadi dispute and the Polavaram project during the budget session of the assembly.
When asked the Chief Minister refused to comment on the outcome of the panchayat polls. "It would not be appropriate for the Chief Minister to make a statement on the polls at this time. I will make my statement on 25th of this month after the results are declared officially," he said.