Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s close aide and BJD leader Kartik Pandian Sunday claimed that the party will win three-fourths of the seats in elections to the 147-member assembly in the state.
Addressing the state-level convention of Biju Sramik Samukhya, an arm of the BJD, here, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said he was optimistic that the party would return to power for the sixth consecutive term by winning 75 per cent of the assembly segments.
“The BJD will win with a record margin in the Assembly elections. We will win three-fourths of the Assembly seats. The party under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also improve its tally in the Lok Sabha elections.”
The Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections in Odisha will be held simultaneously.
The BJD, in the 2019 general elections, had won 12 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, while the opposition BJP secured eight and the Congress got one.
The ruling party had won 113 of the 147 assembly seats five years ago.
Pandian appealed to the people to vote for conch, the symbol of the BJD.
“The Chief Minister is the BJD representative in all the 147 Assembly segments and the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha,” he said.
Noting that labourers play a major role in building a strong and new Odisha, he said the chief minister has been according top priority to their welfare.
He said Patnaik’s father and legendary politician Biju Patnaik had raised the daily wage of labourers from Rs 11 to 25 at one go.
The chief minister has also “increased daily wage by a record Rs 100 from Rs 350 to Rs 450, despite opposition from several quarters”, Pandian said. He also spoke on different development projects of the state government including steps taken for the economic uplift of workers.
Odisha will go to polls in four phases between May 13 and June 1.
PTI
