Ganjam: BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday once again took a jibe at Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s perceived lack of command over Odia language. C
ornering the CM on the issue of corruption and alleged lack of governance, Shah cautioned the voters with more chit fund like scams if the BJD government is re-elected.
He was speaking at an election rally at Polasara in Ganjam, a district from where the maximum number of people have migrated to Gujarat in search of work. Alluding to this fact, the BJP president said if his party is voted to power, they will end migration and create job opportunities in the state itself. He said that while Gujarat’s economy is being benefited from the toil and sweat of the Odia workers in cities such as Surat, BJP will, however, ensure the youths stay with their wives and parents back home and earn at their native place.
Targeting the Chief Minister, Shah said: “When Naveen babu is unable to speak a single line in Odia, how can he ensure the welfare of the people and address large-scale migration from Odisha”. Naveen government, he said, “looks tired and lacks the will to govern Odisha”.
“You have given Congress and BJD a chance to rule the state. Give BJP a chance and we will take Odisha on the path of development,” he said.
Earlier, while releasing the party’s manifesto in Bhubaneswar, the BJP president had come down heavily on the BJD dispensation, alleging that they presided over a 19-year-old rule which was even “inferior” to the previous Congress regimes in Odisha.
Referring to the host of the centrally sponsored programmes launched during the Narendra Modi regime at the Ganjam rally, Shah alleged that the Rs 5.56 lakh crore which the Centre gave to the state during the last five years failed to reach the masses. “The money has been swindled by the close aids of the Chief Minister,” he alleged.
Raising the issue of national security, Shah said it was the Narendra Modi government which had shown the courage to strike the terrorists inside Pakistan territory following the Pulwama terror attack. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, however, was the only person apart from Pakistan anguished over India’s response, he added.