Balangir: Star campaigner of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) V K Pandian on Thursday mounted a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing its leaders of consistently denigrating and disrespecting hief Minister Naveen Patnaik during election campaign.
During his election tour of Balangir district, Pandian cited incidents where the Chief Minister and BJD president was allegedly targeted. Claiming that an attempt was made to throw footwear at Naveen during by-election to Bijepur Assembly seat, he said BJP lost the bypoll by over 45,000 votes as people did not accept such behaviour.
Similarly, eggs were hurled at the CM in Puri and the saffron party lost all 30 zilla parishad elections, he said.
Hitting out at BJP, Pandian said Ministers from Chhattisgarh are visiting Odisha for poll campaign and using insulting words against the CM.
Stating that the people of Odisha will give a befitting reply to the verbal assault on Naveen, the star campaigner said the running BJD will come back to power with resounding success and it will be a testament to the people’s support for the CM.
Pandian urged the people to respond decisively in the ongoing elections to counter such behaviour.
Addressing poll rallies at Titilagarh and other places, Pandian criticised the BJP for disrespecting the CM who he said stands firmly with the people of Odisha.
The BJD leader called upon the electorate to deliver a resounding answer to such behaviour on the next polling day on May 20.
