Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJP and Congress Tuesday attacked the ruling BJD in Odisha accusing it of failing to generate employment for youths and curbing atrocities against women.
The Congress held a rally at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district on the second day of the party’s Jan Sampark Jatra, while the BJP held its state office bearers meeting here.
Leaders of both the parties said that they would raise the issue of unemployment, law and order, atrocities against women, and other issues in the monsoon session of the assembly beginning on July 2.
In the BJP’s meeting attended by the national secretary of the saffron party Harish Dwivedi and workers and leaders of 12 Parliamentary constituencies, the party reviewed its performance in the recently concluded urban and panchayat elections.
A blueprint was being prepared to ensure the party’s win in the 2024 general elections and strengthen the party’s base at the grassroots level, BJP sources said.
The party’s state executive meeting will begin here on Wednesday, said BJP state general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar.
“In the state executive meeting, proposals to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for nominating Odisha’s Droupadi Murmu as its Presidential candidate and hiking the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy will come up, ” she said.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattnayak claimed at the Baripada rally, “The BJP and the BJD are two sides of the same coin. The party leaders quarrel in Odisha while they hug each other in Delhi.”
Strongly opposing the Centre’s Agnipath scheme, the Congress leader said the party will not tolerate such a programme “which will make the nation and its youths weak”.
The Congress leader called upon youths to oppose any programme which was against their interest.
Accusing the BJD government of failing to provide employment for the youths, Pattnayak said, “If Congress comes to power after the 2024 elections, youth and women will be our priority.”
The Congress leader also pointed out that while the state’s debt burden was just Rs 19,000 crore in 2000 when the BJD came to the power, it has now mounted to Rs 1.20 lakh crore.
“The state government has been painting a rosy picture of the economy while Odisha has plunged into a debt trap,” he alleged.
PTI
