Bhubaneswar: The fight between Governing BJD and Opposition BJP has gone to such an extent that top leaders of both the parties did not refrain from attacking each other on the polling day today.
The entire day remained politically eventful in the State. First the State BJP has conveyed a press conference of all senior leaders from Odisha including State President Manmohan Samal, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, MP Aparajita Sarnagi, Vice-President Baijayant Panda and MP Pratap Sarangi.
After knowing about the scheduled press conference, senior BJD leaders like Pranab Prakash Das and Sasmit Patra have mocked the BJP claiming that the saffron party is going to announce its CM candidate today during the presser.
“I am happy to know that Odisha BJP has accepted the BJD demand. Today at 9 am in a joint press conference, the senior leaders of Odisha BJP are going to announce their chief ministerial candidate for the 2024 assembly elections,” tweeted Shri Das.
However, the BJP conveyed the press meet to attack the BJD Government on various issues.
After the press conference was over, BJD National Spokesperson Sasmit Patra, on X, said, “All of us had heard that Odisha BJP will declare their CM candidate today but there was so much quarrelling between aspirants that they could not still announce the candidate today.”
He alleged that the Odisha BJP cannot announce their CM candidate because as soon as they announce, their party in Odisha will break into four parts.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his election rallies, announced that a BJP Chief Minister will take oath in Bhubaneswar on June 10, the BJD has been challenging the saffron party to declare its CM face.
BJD leader V K Pandian claimed that the BJP is unable to declare its CM candidate because it knows the day it does, it will not get even 10 percent of the votes. Shri Pandian appealed to voters to give a befitted reply to the BJP.
On the other hand, BJP Chief Shri Samal said that the BJD has fallen short of leaders and the Government is being run by an outsider while the Ministers and the MLAs were engaged for putting up tents and managing traffic.
“That is the way the BJD treats its leaders. A party, which has failed to groom its second rung of leaders, does have the moral right to question us on our CM candidate,” he said.
“We had demanded details of expenses incurred in various works in Odisha. But, the BJD doesn’t have an answer, and the way the government is functioning is really concerning… There is no democracy in BJD and they are instead pointing fingers at other,” Shri Samal said.
Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi demanded the BJD Government to make public the details of expenditure made on the Shree Jagannath Parikrma project in Puri. She said the people of Odisha have every right to know under what condition this firm was selected for the Rs 4200 crore project.
While the State Government had spent Rs 4200 crore on Sri Mandir Parikrama Project with the Government money, the huge Ram Temple at Ayodhya was constructed at Rs 1400 crore collected from the donation from the public, she noted.
She alleged that during the last five years, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been isolated from others and said even the DGP, the Chief Secretary, the Ministers and MLAs are not allowed to meet him without the prior approval of a person who has kept him in isolation.
Moreover, BJP Vice President Baijayant Panda alleged that the video of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik released to the press and the people of the State in which the CM commented on PM Modi and talked of “daydreaming” is a “deep fake”.
He said it could be discerned by comparing AI-generated video messages of the Chief Minister from a helicopter with his actual videos in public appearances and pointed out a difference between the video released to the press inside a helicopter and his appearances elsewhere.
Union Minister Shri Pradhan countered Shri Pandian’s claim that Odisha is a far better state than Gujarat.