Amit Shah’s claim to form govt in Odisha is day dream, say BJD and Congress

BHUBANESWAR: A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the BJP will come to power in Odisha in 2024, both the ruling BJD and Opposition Congress dismissed it as a day dream.The claim to form the next government in Odisha is simply an act of day dreaming by the BJD, former minister Sudam Marndi told media persons here.

“They will never be able to come to power in the State as long as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik remains our leader,” he said. Dismissing BJP’s ‘Mission 120’ as unachievable, Marndi said the saffron party had also claimed that it would win at least 120 of the 147 seats in the Odisha Assembly in 2019 elections. “Everybody knows what was the outcome,” he said.

The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) also pooh-poohed the claim. “The party had made similar claims last during last elections, but what happened,” OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak told media persons.

Stating that Congress is now on the revival path in the State, the OPCC president said that the party will win more seats than the BJP in the 2024 Assembly elections. In the by-election to the Brajrajnagar Assembly constituency, it had pushed BJP to the third position and emerged as the main Opposition.