Bhubaneswar: With the declaration of the final results of the Panchayat election, leaders of the opposition BJP and the Congress have started introspection over their debacle.
Respecting the mandate of the people, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Odisha is getting maximum benefits from welfare programmes of the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on eastern India. We will strengthen our organisation and work harder to ensure welfare programmes of the Modi government reach people.”
He congratulated elected BJP candidates, party workers and expressed gratitude to 63.23 lakh voters in the state, who have voted his party in the three-tier Panchayat elections.
Admitting his party’s defeat in the poll, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi said, “All party workers of the BJP in Odisha are disappointed and saddened with the results. The BJP could have shown better performance in the poll. Definitely, there are faults in election management; we will find those during our introspection meeting.”
She said there will be no impact of this election results on the upcoming urban polls. It will not have any impact on the general election in 2024 too, Sarangi claimed.
“Though we have failed to win enough ZP seats, we have got 30 per cent of vote share in the polls,” said state BJP president Samir Mohanty. However, another BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra indirectly blamed the state BJP leadership for the debacle.
“I am not surprised by the results of the Panchayat elections. The kind of preparations we made during the 2017 elections was not done this time. Neither any meeting, nor any specific strategy or blueprint was prepared for the poll.”
When a party goes to polls with such unpreparedness, what type of results are expected, he asked. State Congress president Niranjan Patnaik alleged that the BJD had taken advantage by spending funds through various government schemes.
If health insurance of Rs 5 lakh is distributed to 70 per cent of people under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) smart health card scheme and money is distributed to ration card holders, farmers and street vendors, what can be done, he said.
The BJD uses public money to strengthen its vote bank and this is putting them in an advantageous position, Patnaik said.
Reacting to the allegations, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said, “They should accept and introspect their debacle instead of raising questions over the BJD’s integrity.”
PNN