BHUBANESWAR: BJP’s national spokesperson and Lok Sabha candidate from Puri Dr Sambit Patra was heavily trolled on social media on Sunday after he shared a video of him having lunch in a hamlet in the district.
The video he shared on his twitter handle showed the doctor-turned politician having lunch on a banana leaf at an elderly woman’s house. The woman was seen making pancakes, most loved Odia delicacy, on an earthen oven by her side. Patra was also seen sharing the food with the old woman and her two physically challenged daughters in the video.
Uploading the video on the micro blogging site, he mentioned that two of three children of the widow are physically challenged for whom PM Narendra Modi has built a house.
But little did the unsuspecting Patra know that his twitter post would trigger criticism. As soon as the tweet was posted, Twitterati went berserk questioning the shoddy status of the NDA-II Government’s flagship Ujjwala scheme in the State. “Why no gas connection for this maa?” tweeted Chowkidar Bambi. “You fed the old woman, but who did eat her Ujjwala benefit?” asked one Sanoj Kumar Bhoi. “Is this your Ujjwala Yojana?” asked another account-holder.
The sarcasms went on. “Weren’t we told that Ujjwala Yojana was a smashing success and that mothers and sisters of poorest of poor have got gas cylinders at their homes? Can’t spot a gas cylinder here at least. Reaction?” tweeted one Prashant Kumar.
Tagging the tweet of Dr Patra, Congress national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi asked: “Isn’t Dharmendra Pradhan ji the man credited for Ujjwala scheme also from Odisha?”
Dr Patra has been courting controversy ever since he landed in Odisha to file his nomination papers from Puri. He triggered a row for holding an idol of Lord Jagannath while participating in a motorcycle rally from Bhubaneswar to Puri.
Earlier, talking to mediapersons, he had vowed at the feet of Lord Jagannath to make the ‘conch’ bloom in the pilgrim town. An over enthusiast Dr Patra forgot that conch was BJD’s party symbol.