Puri: Affirming his party’s resolve to ensure speedy development of Odisha, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national president J P Nadda on Friday asserted that concrete steps will be taken for the empowerment of tribals and scheduled caste people.
Addressing the executive committee meeting of Odisha BJP at Puri, Nadda thanked the people of Odisha for showing immense love for the saffron party by electing 78 MLAs and 20 Lok Sabha members in the recent elections.
The state BJP is holding its first executive committee meeting after it formed its maiden government in Odisha following an impressive performance in the recent elections.
Asserting that BJP is committed towards ensuring welfare of the people of Odisha, he said that the people of Odisha have created history by strongly backing the saffron party and enabling it to form government in the state for first time.
“BJP will leave no stone unturned to serve the people of Odisha and ensure their welfare,” said Nadda, who is also Union Health Minister.
Underlining the need for the empowerment of all sections of society, the BJP chief said the party government will take steps to elevate the status of people belonging to tribal and scheduled caste communities. “We will leave no stone unturned to bring the schedule caste community and our tribal brothers to mainstream,” said Nadda.
Stating that Odisha’s contribution of votes in Lok Sabha was 45 per cent, Nadda said Narendra Modiji has become the Prime Minister for the third term in a row.
There are NDA governments in 18 states and BJP-led governments in 13 states. “In fact, BJP is ruling over 58 per cent of the nation’s total land and 57 per cent of the total population,” the party chief said.
“We are scripting glorious chapters in the country’s history. It was after around 60 years that someone was chosen as the Prime Minister for the third time. India has been making big strides under the able leadership of PM Modi Ji,” said Nadda.
Coming down heavily on Congress, the BJP president said the grand old party has become a political ‘parasite’, feeding off the strength of others to feed itself. “Congress makes empty promises, and walks on nothing but ‘Baisaakhi’ (crutches),” he claimed.
Accusing Congress party of having no regard for the Constitution, Nadda said over 1,25,000 people were put behind bars under MISA and DIR in June 1975.
He said Naveen Patnaik must be aware how his father Biju Patnaik was put behind bars. “Morarji Desai, Chandra Sekhar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and hundreds of ministers were also sent to jail. And now they (the Congress) are trying to give moral lesson on Constitution,” he said.
The opening day of the two-day executive meeting was attended among others by Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, state BJP president Manmohan Samal, BJP national vice president Baijayant Panda, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan & Jual Oram, Deputy Chief Ministers Pravati Parida and K V Singh Deo, and party’s Odisha in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar.
