‘BJD repeating Cong mistake’

Bhubaneswar: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said BJD is repeating the Congress mistake of the 70s by launching a ‘Naveen Odisha’ campaign.
Referring to a newspaper advertisement by the BJD which has a tagline ‘Nabeena Odishara Parichaya’ (Naveen the identity of Odisha), Dharmendra said, “During the 70s, the then Congress president Dev Kant Barooah had given a call that ‘India is Indira’ and ‘Indira is India’. ‘Naveen Odisha’ campaign by the BJD also exposes the dictatorial nature of the regional party in Odisha.”
He said people make such claims out of desperation. “If Naveen (Patnaik) is Odisha’s identity then what about Lord Jagannath, Lord Lingaraj, goddess Samaleswari, Chilika lake and Sun Temple at Konark?” asked Pradhan. “Such arrogance is not desirable in a democracy,” he said.
The Union minister’s statement, days before the fourth and final phase elections in Odisha, evoked sharp response from the BJD camp as the ruling party hit back at Dharmendra accusing him of misinterpreting the campaign without understating it. “Nabeena Odishara Parichaya means identity of new Odisha, a progressive Odisha, which the Union minister is not able to understand because of his lack of knowledge,” said BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra.
The BJD spokesperson said the ‘New Odisha’ is being recognised by the NDA government for record decrease in infant mortality rate, doubling farmers’ income, building 20 lakh pucca houses, construction of 41,000 km of rural roads, providing skill development training to 9 lakh youths and winning four krishi karman awards. “Odisha is now the best performing state on several national parameters. The BJP leaders are trying to mislead people with fake claims,” said Sasmit.
On the last day of campaigning, both the parties also engaged in a bitter war of words as the Union minister also criticised the chief minister for relying only on Centre-bashing agenda during the election campaign instead of talking about his two-decade rule.
“During his election campaign, neither the chief minister presented the report card of his government’s 19-year long rule nor he presented his vision for the next five years” said Dharmendra.