The roadshow, which drew thousands of BJD supporters, people from various walks of life, passed through the main thoroughfares of the city with stepped up security.
Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik (Photo: Twitter)
Hours after rival political heavyweights – BJP president J P Nadda and Indian National Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched blistering attack on the BJD, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who heads the regional party, on Thursday embarked on high-voltage roadshow in Bhubaneswar appealing the voters to repose faith in him as they have been doing for 24-long-years.
Patnaik, who has maintained an aura of invincibility registering successive electoral victory both in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, is now contending with a vociferous attack from the BJP, which has lined up a galaxy of top leaders to upset the Patnaik’s applecart and is probably, as it seems, fighting the toughest poll battle ever since he entered into politics in the late nineties.
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The roadshow, which drew thousands of BJD supporters, people from various walks of life, passed through the main thoroughfares of the city with stepped up security.
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A visibly jovial Patnaik was seen waving at the crowd from the specially-customized vehicle, which stopped at strategic junctions enabling the Chief Minister to deliver brief speeches lasting 60 seconds or more.
He reminded the people of the BJD’s manifesto of 100-unit free electricity provision of zero bill to domestic consumers with a monthly electricity bill of up to 100 units.
Earlier holding a roadshow in Bhubaneswar to bolster party candidates’ prospects in polls, BJP president J P Nadda had predicted the fall of Naveen Patnaik Government by saying that people of the state have decided to give BJD a ‘rest’.
Congress Chief Kharge also launched a diatribe at Patnaik government and termed it as corrupt and inefficient. The unemployment rate has reached a sky high 41 per cent during the BJD government and it is the highest in the country, Kharge asserted while appealing to the Odisha voters to throw out the government.
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