BHUBANESWAR: Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said BJD lost the 2024 election with a narrow margin as it could not effectively counter the false narrative of the BJP.
Addressing the party leaders and workers at Sankha Bhawan here after being elected as the BJD president for the ninth consecutive time, the former chief minister said, “I have full faith in the party workers. They will give a befitting reply to the lies. We will take the message of our service to every village and city of Odisha.”
He called upon the party workers to be aggressive in exposing the falsities of the BJP, particularly on social media. Stating that BJD’s organisational strength should not be underestimated, Naveen said the grassroots level workers are the real assets of the party.
“BJD’s strength is based on its policies and ideology. The party will continue to serve the people whether in power or not. Empowerment of all sections of people including women, farmers, youths, workers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is the focus of the BJD. The party has always fought for the interest of the people of Odisha and will continue to do so in future,” he said.
Naveen said the BJD rule from 2000 to 2024 was the golden period of development for Odisha. The state became an ideal for other states because of its pioneering role in many fields. He thanked the party leaders and workers for giving him the opportunity to serve the party as president of BJD. He paid tributes to Biju Patnaik and said his ideals have always shown the way to the party.
Several MPs, MLAs absent
However, Naveen’s assumption of the reigns of the party in the aftermath of the crisis over the Waqf Amendment Bill voting in Rajya Sabha, though unopposed, was not a smooth affair as several senior leaders including three MPs and two MLAs were absent on the occasion.
The MPs who were not present were Sasmit Patra, Sulata Deo and Niranjan Bishi while the absentee MLAs include Ranendra Pratap Swain and Sanatan Mahakud. Other senior leaders including former ministers Bhupinder Singh, Sashi Bhushan Behera and Prafulla Mallik were also absent.
Sources in the BJD said that those who remained absent do not belong to the same group in the party. Patra has been under attack within the party for voting in favour of Waqf Bill. Deo and Bishi had supported Patra. Swain had recently shot off a letter to the party chief questioning the change of party’s stand on the Bill while the senior leaders had questioned interference of outside force in the party’s decision making. The MPs and MLAs who skipped the function were not available for their comment while the senior leaders like Singh, Mallick and Behera said they were not invited to the meeting.