BJP chief Amit Shah at a public meeting in Bhawanipatna.( PTI photo)
Slamming the BJD government’s performance on jobs, health and development at a rally in Bhawanipatna on Wednesday, BJP president Amit Shah said that Odisha needs a ruler who can speak Odia and understand the problems of people of the state.
“If Odias (working in) Gujarat and Karnataka can contribute to development in these states, then why can’t they do so in their own state while living with their old parents,” Shah said on migration from Odisha due to lack of jobs.
Shah also slammed the Naveen Patnaik-led government over “36 per cent families living without electricity” and “50 lakh people still living in kutcha houses” despite the BJD’s 18 years in power. He said the Modi government will ensure 100 per cent electrification of Odisha by 2021, while a BJP CM in the state will build roads for roughly 12,000 unconnected villages within two years.
Targeting Chief Minister Patnaik, Shah said that “Odisha needs a ruler who can speak Odia and understand the problems of Odias”.
The BJP president questioned the reason behind calling a Bharat Bandh after the Centre announced that it will file a review petition. He said the “Congress and opposition parties were responsible for 10 lives that were lost” in the protests. Shah emphasised that the party “will not remove reservation or allow anyone to scale it down”.
The rally was also attended by Union Ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan. In a dig at the BJD accepting defectors from Congress, Oram said the “Biju Janata Dal has turned into the Biju Janaki Dal”. Janaki Patnaik was a three-term Congress chief minister, whose son-in-law Soumya Ranjan Patnaik joined BJD in March and was immediately nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Shah, who is on a two-day visit to Odisha, will address a rally in Bolangir on Thursday. Shah is in the state to take stock of the party organisation before the Assembly polls in 2019, sources said.