Bhubaneswar: With a battery of top BJP leaders firing salvos at the Naveen Patnaik government during poll campaign in Odisha, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday claimed that electioneering by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will only harm saffron party’s prospects.
BJD MP and party’s national spokesperson Sasmit Patra claimed that the more Biswa Sarma campaigns in Odisha, the higher will be the margins of defeat for the saffron outfit’s candidates in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state.
“We thank the Odisha BJP for accepting our yesterday’s request to them, through a press meet, to retain Assam Hon’ble CM Shri. Himanta Biswa Sarma in Odisha for campaigning for the Odisha BJP candidates,” the BJD leader said in a post on X.
“The more he campaigns, the Odisha BJP candidates will end up with a bigger defeat, higher margins of defeat and many losing their deposits. We therefore further request Odisha BJP to retain him till end of campaigning on 30th May, so that his hilarious and rubbish statements will lower Odisha BJP more in the eyes of the people of Odisha, reduce more votes of Odisha BJP candidates,” he added.
Notably, Biswa Sarma and other heavyweight leaders of BJP have been making whirlwind tours of Odisha to garner support for party candidates. They have been mounting stinging attack on the BJD government in the state over a host of issues, including the missing keys of Ratna Bhandar of Puri Jagannath Temple and the role of ruling party’s star campaigner V K Pandian.
Biswa Sarma is also slated to address a number of election rallies in Balasore and Mayurbhanj in the state on Tuesday.