BJD lost due to corruption, misgovernance, not false narrative: BJP

BHUBANESWAR: Countering the “false narrative” accusation of BJD president Naveen Patnaik, the BJP on Saturday said the regional party lost the 2024 elections due to corruption, misgovernance and misutilisation of central assistance.

Responding to Naveen’s statement at a media conference here, state BJP president Manmohan Samal said the issues raised by his party struck a chord with the people as the regional party had no answers.

“We continued to ask questions to the BJD government and they ignored them. Their silence cost them dearly. Lack of democracy within the BJD, over bureaucratisation of the state administration, no say of ministers in government, and above all disrespect of elected representatives at the hands of bureaucrats were the issues raised by the BJP. These were the narratives of the BJP before the election and none of them were false,” Samal said.

He further added that instead of accusing the BJP, Naveen should introspect on what went wrong. “It seems he is still not ready to accept the people’s mandate,” the state BJP chief said.

Replying to a query on Naveen’s election as the party president for the ninth consecutive time, Samal said, “I congratulate him and expect that the BJD under his leadership will act as a responsible opposition and play a very constructive role.”