Calling upon the people to vote for his party in the ensuing polls for a Congress-free India, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also urged the people of Odisha to oust the Naveen Patnaik government that had failed to provide any governance.
Terming both the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Odisha as non-performing ones, Mr. Modi said time had come to vote for his party to bring a responsive government at the Centre as well as in the State.
“When no farmer keeps a Halia (labourer) to till his fields even for a period of two months if he failed to till his fields properly, how you could tolerate such non-performing governments for long years,” Mr. Modi asked the people at a massive rally in this western Odisha district on Friday.
Observing that Odisha was known for poverty and starvation, Mr. Modi blamed the present Congress-led government at the Centre for not providing necessary financial assistance for proper implementation of the Revised Long Term Action Plan for the backward Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region of Odisha. Coming down heavily on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Odisha Chief Minister, Mr. Modi said both had failed to keep the promises that they had made before coming to power. They had cheated the people at large, he alleged.
Speaking in detail about the problems facing the people in western Odisha which was known for lack of irrigation, starvation deaths and large scale migration of labour, Mr. Modi assured the people to address these issues if his party was voted to power.
As Mr. Modi was addressing the rally at Balangir, a group of young men displayed placards urging Mr. Modi for creation of a separate Koshal State comprising the western Odisha districts. Today’s visit of Mr. Modi, third to Odisha after his first visit to Bhubaneswar on February 11 and to Sambalpur on March 14, was likely to boost the party’s prospects in the State in general and western Odisha in particular.
The BJP was hoping to perform well in western Odisha, considered to be its stronghold when the party was in power in the State in alliance with the BJD from 2000 to 2009.
Apart from Balangir, Mr. Modi also addressed public meetings at Nuapada and Rourkela that also come under the western region of the State.
