New Delhi: Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hinted Sunday his party may not project a chief ministerial face in Odisha, where Assembly and Lok Sabha polls will be conducted together. However, he asserted his party will end the two-decade reign of Naveen Patnaik on the back of PM Narendra Modi’s popular appeal and development work.
Pradhan also rejected the suggestion that his party was looking at Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as a potential ally after the Lok Sabha polls. He said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is fuelling such speculation as he was ‘shaken’ with the saffron party’s rise.
“We are in a direct fight with the BJD. We are sure to emerge as the number one party and also get a majority in the Odisha Assembly. The BJP is rising and Modi enjoys a lot of credibility in the state. To survive this, he has spread this (speculation) that he may support the BJP,” Pradhan told this agency in an interview.
Asked if the BJP will announce its chief ministerial candidate, Pradhan said Modi will be the party’s main face and noted that it had won in a number of states such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura without projecting any leader for the top post.
“It (chief ministerial candidate) is not our priority. Our priority is to make the BJP the number one party in the state,” he asserted.
The 49-year-old leader mounted a sharp attack on Patnaik and said he was elected to power again and again because the opposition was too weak to highlight his ‘corrupt, incompetent and insensitive’ rule under which even basic facilities like drinking water, electricity and health services were not provided to most residents in Odisha.
Patnaik’s call for ending ‘PC (percentage commission) culture’ in the state is a case of ‘chor machaye shor’ (thief making noise), the BJP leader said, claiming that the Chief Minister is a part and parcel of this culture.
Pardhan also asserted that the BJP could not capitalize on the 2014 ‘Modi wave’ in Odisha state due to its lack of organisational capacity but it has come a long way since. He said that the party has emerged as the main challenger to the BJD in the panchayat polls by bagging over 33 per cent of votes.
PTI
