Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP’s star campaigner Yogi Adityanath on Thursday launched a scathing attack at the 24-year-old Naveen Patnaik Government in Odisha saying that “officer raj has hijacked the governance and it has let loose mafia raaj to push the state backwards by 50 years”.

Odisha needs UP-like double-engine governance to end mafia raaj enjoying patronage of bureaucrats, he stressed while addressing a poll rally at Mahanga under Kendrapara Parliamentary constituency where BJP has fielded its national vice-president Baijayant Panda as the candidate.

The UP CM hit out at Patnaik-led government and said “when the bureaucracy takes control of the Parliamentary democracy, it leads to corruption, irregularities and dictatorship, exploitation of people and mafia raj”.

In UP, there is a double engine government, now the people have got an opportunity to elect a double-engine government to ‘bulldoze’ action against land, sand and forest mafia, said Yogi Adityanath seeking votes for BJP.

The Odisha’s bureaucrats are patronising the land mafia, coal mafia and are on a looting spree of State’s rich mineral resources, thereby playing with the Odia youths’ future, said the UP CM taking a dig at the bureaucracy-centric governance in the State.

Accusing the BJD government of diverting the people, he alleged the ration sent by the Modi government is being hijacked by officers of Naveen Babu (CM) to rebrand it as their own.

In an indirect reference to Tamil Nadu-born BJD star campaigner VK Pandian, he said “the ‘Tamil babu’ is putting brakes on implementation of the Ayushman Bharat health scheme in Odisha as its implementation would end the commission culture”.

Lashing out at the BJD’s promise to provide free electricity up to 100 units to domestic consumers, he pointed out that “the BJD government is selling electricity at cheaper rates outside while it is charging consumers high rates here”.

Stating that Uttar Pradesh has turned into a model State by the double-engine sarkar, he said Naveen babu has been elected for a very long time with little development to showcase.

”The mafia raaj by — cattle mafia, land and mining mafias — who were ruling the roost in UP prior to 2017 has been stopped. The UP Government has made effective use of bulldozers to protect businessmen and women. A double-engine government in Odisha will ‘bulldoze’ action against land, sand and forest mafias, currently protected by the BJD government,” he added.