Nuapada: Galvanising Biju Janata Dal’s campaign for Nuapada Assembly by-election, party president Naveen Patnaik on Friday accused the ruling BJP of ‘cheating’ the people of Odisha by making “false promises” and forming a government.
Campaigning for the BJD candidate Snehangini Chhuria in the Nuapada bypoll, the BJD chief said the BJP can form a government by making ‘false promises’, but cannot win the hearts of the people.
“They (BJP) can form a government by telling lies in a deceitful manner, make false promises, indulge in candidate ‘chori’, but cannot win the hearts of the people of Nuapada,” Naveen said at a public rally in Nuapada’s Khariar Road.
Before reaching the venue of the public meeting, the BJD president took part in a 15-km-long road sho, where people from different parts of the constituency gathered to welcome him.
While urging the people to give a befitting reply to the BJP’s “lies and candidate “chori” in the bypolls, Patnaik again said “Betrayal is done to the people of Odisha, the Biju Janata Dal, and to me personally.”
During the speech, Naveen paid rich tribute to late party MLA Rajendra Dholakia and said that the Nuapada district was created during his father Biju Patnaik’s tenure as the CM of Odisha, and the district witnessed development when the BJD formed government in the state.
Referring to the BJP, the former chief minister said, “Development does not take place through false propaganda. A government cannot be run on lies and false promises.”
Noting that the BJP government has already completed 500 days in office, Patnaik asked the gathering whether they have received 300 units of free electricity, Rs 3,500 old age pension, fertiliser for farmers at the proper time, jobs for youth, or loans for Mission Shakti women.
“What did you get? Only dhoka…dhoka and double dhoka (betrayal…betrayal and double betrayal),” the BJD president said, alleging that the people were getting “tension, not treatment” under the Ayushman scheme compared to the BJD government’s BSKY (Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana).
Accusing the BJP of having made false promises to the people before the 2024 elections, he also referred to late Rajendra Dholakia’s son becoming a BJP candidate after the death of his father.
