New Delhi/ Bhubaneswar: BJP national president Amit Shah’s Mission 120+ might have failed in Odisha, but the Union Home Minister has seemingly developed a soft corner for the eastern state.
On Monday, amid uproarious scenes in the Rajya Sabha, Shah while announcing the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370 mentioned Odisha twice.
“Will doctors from Mumbai, Odisha go to Kashmir if they are not able to buy a house there?” he asked, referring to the ban on ‘outsiders’ buying property in Jammu and Kashmir.
Defending his government’s decision to do away with special status for J&K, Shah alluded to Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement that inter-state marriages were taking place but asked: “If a J&K girl marries a man from Odisha, will she and her child get any rights in J&K?”
Shah mentioning Odisha’s twice coincided with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) extending support to the NDA government’s decision to scrap Article 370.
This is seen with significance in Odisha political circles as Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have post-elections seemingly convinced Naveen Patnaik’s BJD to support passage of certain legislations in Parliament. The growing bonhomie between the two parties has raised several eyebrows as both had engaged in an acerbic verbal duel in the run-up to the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in April-May. Months before the elections, Shah had publicly claimed that his party would win more than 120 of the 147 seats in the Odisha Assembly. However, it had to settle with 23 as the BJD grabbed 112 seats.
