Being in power for more than 17 years in Odisha has been no mean feat for the Biju Janata Dal, which is turning 20 this month. As it prepares for a fifth consecutive victory in 2019, the party has announced to celebrate its 20th foundation day in the holy town of Puri on December 26.
Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik has already written letters to the party’s grassroots leaders inviting them to attend the convention where the party will launch its Agami Odishara Vikas Yatra (journey of development for future Odisha).
Party pledge
Mr. Patnaik has urged all office-bearers and elected representatives of the party to join the meeting at the Talabania locality of Puri town to make a pledge for working wholeheartedly for a resurgent Odisha.
This is for time first time that the BJD, which has been in power in the State since March 2000, will celebrate its foundation day outside the Capital city of Bhubaneswar
. The Samadhi of late Biju Patnaik, after whom the BJD has been named, is also located at the Swargadwar cremation ground in Puri, the abode of Lord Jagannath.
The party, which has been highlighting the achievements of its government, in different forums and social media, has already activated its various organisational wings and started making development its main plank to fight future polls.
Active on social media
Being the head of the party as well as the government, Mr. Patnaik has also become active in social media platforms in both ways thereby making his Ministers and party leaders equally active.
The Chief Minister on Wednesday launched an innovative social media grievance handling mechanism that will rejuvenate government-public interface and create a strong bond of trust between government and the people.
Launching the grievance redressal mechanism, Mr. Patnaik said that he would personally monitor the performance of the officers in attending the grievances of people on social media.
It is expected from the officers to respond to grievances ideally within 24 hours and those with better performance on grievance redressal will be marked green and those with below average performance will be marked red. He will personally call both the green and red marked officers to thank or suggest improvements as the case may be, he said.
The BJD’s foundation day celebration in Puri is expected to be attended by around 30,000 party workers from all parts of the State where Mr. Patnaik will advice them to successfully continue their work towards the growth of the State in all spheres, said a senior leader of the party.