BHUBANESWAR: As campaign for the ensuing elections has picked up in the state, BJD leader and star campaigner for the party, VK Pandian on Wednesday targeted the BJP stating that the party is not keen on winning elections but increasing seat share and breaking the BJD after the polls.
This was stated by the bureaucrat turned politician while meeting a group of television channel journalists at Gopalpur in Ganjam district on Wednesday.
"They (BJP) had a slogan of securing 120 assembly seats in 2014 but failed. I do not know their target for 2019. But, for 2024, they have been fighting elections to win 50/60 seats and aim to break BJD after the elections. This is their poll strategy," Pandian told journalists.
The 5T chairman who is campaigning for the BJD candidates across the state said BJP had earlier applied this strategy in states like Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Pandian said the BJD will sweep the phase I polls in the state, scheduled on May 13. The fight is with Congress in Koraput and Kalahandi, in Ganjam the result will be one sided, he added.
Stating that campaign by so many central BJP leaders will have no impact, he said the same leaders had also campaigned in 2014 and 2019. But the campaign didn't have any impact as people love chief minister Naveen Patnaik, he said.
"You have seen in 2014, 2019 and also in 2024, entire army of leaders from across the country come for campaigning. But, the people will not trust them. The people will bless Nabeen babu in a big way," Pandian said replying to a question on the BJP national leaders making queue for campaigning in the state during the twin polls for the Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly.
Asked whether he was confident of Patnaik becoming the chief minister of Odisha for the sixth consecutive time, Padian said: "I have a strong conviction that Naveen babu will win the elections with flying colours.
Had I not such conviction, I would not have said that Naveen babu will be sworn in as CM on June 9 with blessings of Maha Prabu Jagannath," he said.
Pandian said that they (BJP) have no candidates in 60 of the 147 assembly segments in Odisha.
They waited for the release of BJD's candidate list so that they could pick up candidates from among the leaders dropped or rejected by the regional party.
"This is the reality of BJP in Odisha," he said.
Pandian also came down heavily on Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi and accused them of attempting to stop the Shree Mandir Parikrama Project (Jagannath temple heritage corridor project).
Replying to a question on BJP raising the Odia Asmita (pride) issue during elections, Pandian said, the central government has not given a single rupee for the promotion of Odia language.
Though the BJP has 8 MPs in Lok Sabha, all of them remained completely silent while the Centre was providing money for the promotion of other languages and not for Odia language.
"Only during election time, the union minister (Dharmendra Pradhan) shows his love for Odia language and talks about Asmita," the BJD leader said.
(With inputs from PTI)
