Bhubaneswar: War of words among Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) over the unofficial results of the panchayat elections escalated Friday ahead of official announcement of the results by the State Election Commission (SEC) Saturday.
Unable to digest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words in a rally in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJD which is expected to lose around 190 seats to the BJP in the panchayat elections, hit back highlighting failure of many of programmes of the Centre including ‘Make in India’ implemented ‘in the name of development.’
“If Orissa is poor, the PM shouldn’t forget that the BJP was also in the state (in a coalition government with BJD) for nine years. What was his party doing?” said BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb.
Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra also jumped into the fight hitting out at Modi over his remarks on Orissa and panchayat elections in which he had also criticised the Congress.
Mishra said Modi and BJP leaders are behaving as if they haven’t won any elections before.
“What BJP in the state was doing while it was in power along with BJD for nine years,” said Mishra, adding, “The party was also in power at the Centre during Vajpayeeji’s regime. What have they done for the state?”
However, the verbal war didn’t stop here. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, addressing newsmen at New Delhi expressed satisfaction over the saffron party’s unprecedented performance in panchayat polls and claimed that the political scenario has changed in the country as well as in Orissa now.
Though official results of panchayat elections will be declared Saturday, Pradhan, however, claimed that against 36 zilla parishad (ZP) seats in 2012, the BJP this time has won 307 seats. He said while BJP grabbed ZPs of eight districts from BJD, it is also expecting to form ZPs in five districts where unofficial results show none having clear majority.
However, BJD which is claiming that the BJP has won around 290 seats said that the saffron party is spreading false information.
BJD leader and panchayati raj minister Arun Sahoo said BJP state president Basant Panda has been rejected by people in his area Nuapada, while Dharmendra Pradhan has also been rejected in Angul and Dhenkanal.
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