BHUBANESWAR: AS the fight for the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat has turned into a prestige issue for the ruling BJD and BJP with both the camps leaving nothing to chance, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik once again targeted his bête noire Baijayant Panda on the last day of the campaigning on Saturday.
Stating that he regrets nominating Baijayant twice for the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and 2014 as a BJD candidate, the BJD supremo said, “I had assigned a young and highly educated person the task of development of Kendrapara. But he (Baijayant) betrayed the people of the constituency and worked to further his own interest.”
“The people of Kendrapara will never spare the traitor,” Naveen said and assured locals that development of the district is his responsibility. The Chief Minister said he will monitor the development of Kendrapara personally and he has nominated an educated and popular man cine star Anubhav Mohanty, who will work for the development of Kendrapara.
The Chief Minister conducted road shows at Tinimuhani, Gulnagar, Indupur, Gogua, Pattamundai, Patrapur, Aul, Rajkanika, Olavar, Haripur, Safa, Goudagaon, Biswanakani, Barpada, Bhagatpur and Tangi in the Lok Sabha constituency on the last of the campaigning.
Addressing an election meeting at Pattamundai, Naveen criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Odisha even once during hard times. “The Prime Minister visited Andhra Pradesh for Hud Hud on October 14, 2014. He visited Bihar and Gujarat for floods on August 26, 2017 and July 27, 2017, Assam for floods on August 1, 2017 and Kerala for floods on August 18, 2018, but had no time for Odisha during the last five years,” he said.