BHUBANESWAR/BALANGIR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik directly on Saturday, the first time this season, asking, “How can people entrust their children’s future to a CM who doesn’t even know the names of Odisha’s districts despite governing the state for 24 years?”
Modi claimed that Odisha is controlled by outsiders who have taken over the state in the last five years, undermining elected representatives, and called for a change in guard.
Modi alluded to the increasing influence of VK Pandian within BJD and said Odisha’s people should protect the state from further “deterioration. Speaking at an election rally in Bargarh, western Odisha, Modi asked, “You tell me who runs the BJD govt. Do you know that the entire govt has been outsourced? There is a super-CM who is above MLAs elected democratically and the CM elected by MLAs. Do you want Odisha to fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand Odisha? Whose responsibility is it to save Odisha?”
“I have not come here for BJP’s benefits. I have come here, requesting you with folded hands. Please save my Odisha. Odisha is getting ruined. Such a great state with great culture and tradition lost 25 years. In the past five years, outsiders have totally captured Odisha,” he said.
“Tell me if the sons and daughters of Odisha are capable of leading the state,” he asked. On a two-day visit, the PM addressed three rallies, the others being at Phulbani (Kandhamal) and Balangir.
In Balangir, Modi claimed Naveen could not name 10 villages of Kantabanji, from where he has been contesting, without reading it from a piece of paper. “He is cut off from ground realities,” the PM said. Stating that the countdown for a BJD govt in Odisha had started, Modi said, “Gaje Baaje ke Saath Vida Kijiye (Send them packing on a celebratory note).”
Claiming that Odisha’s culture is in danger under the current BJD govt, Modi said many eminent Odia personalities, such as Veer Surendra Sai, Gopabandhu Das, Harekrushna Mahtab and Biju Patnaik, must be very sad seeing the state of affairs. “Odia asmita (self-respect) can’t be mortgaged to someone like this,” he said, an indirect reference to Tamil Nadu-born VK Pandian’s rise in BJD.
Modi claimed that Odisha is controlled by outsiders who have taken over the state in the last five years, undermining elected representatives, and called for a change in guard.
Modi alluded to the increasing influence of VK Pandian within BJD and said Odisha’s people should protect the state from further “deterioration. Speaking at an election rally in Bargarh, western Odisha, Modi asked, “You tell me who runs the BJD govt. Do you know that the entire govt has been outsourced? There is a super-CM who is above MLAs elected democratically and the CM elected by MLAs. Do you want Odisha to fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand Odisha? Whose responsibility is it to save Odisha?”
“I have not come here for BJP’s benefits. I have come here, requesting you with folded hands. Please save my Odisha. Odisha is getting ruined. Such a great state with great culture and tradition lost 25 years. In the past five years, outsiders have totally captured Odisha,” he said.
“Tell me if the sons and daughters of Odisha are capable of leading the state,” he asked. On a two-day visit, the PM addressed three rallies, the others being at Phulbani (Kandhamal) and Balangir.
In Balangir, Modi claimed Naveen could not name 10 villages of Kantabanji, from where he has been contesting, without reading it from a piece of paper. “He is cut off from ground realities,” the PM said. Stating that the countdown for a BJD govt in Odisha had started, Modi said, “Gaje Baaje ke Saath Vida Kijiye (Send them packing on a celebratory note).”
Claiming that Odisha’s culture is in danger under the current BJD govt, Modi said many eminent Odia personalities, such as Veer Surendra Sai, Gopabandhu Das, Harekrushna Mahtab and Biju Patnaik, must be very sad seeing the state of affairs. “Odia asmita (self-respect) can’t be mortgaged to someone like this,” he said, an indirect reference to Tamil Nadu-born VK Pandian’s rise in BJD.
