Starting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to BJP National President JP Nadda, the saffron party’s Central leaders have been frequently targeting Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, raking up a host of issues like the multi-crore mining scam, chit fund scam, the DMF fund mismanagement, bureaucratic hegemony, proxy governance by a ‘Tamil Babu,’ the missing keys of Srimandir Ratna Bhandar, and the non-opening of all four gates of Srimandir.
Surprisingly, the Chief Minister is not retorting back to the attacks but is maintaining silence.
At a public rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thundered by asking many questions and said, "Who destroyed my Odisha? Who trampled the dreams of youths? A coterie of the corrupt has captured the CMO.”
‘Naveen should reply’
During an exclusive interview with OTV, Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Here is my straightforward question to Naveen Babu. We do not need replies from his Babus. What is the mystery surrounding the missing key of Ratna Bhandar? Where is the key? Why has he been hiding the inquiry commission report? Naveen Babu should reply to all such questions before the polls.”
Such questions are not being answered by the Chief Minister either at public meetings or in his video messages or 'Reels.' His cryptic silence on such issues has raised questions as to why the CM has no replies on these issues or if the BJD government is on the back foot.
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Targeting the CM, BJP’s Odisha election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar said, "He is unable to reply to these questions at public meetings. What answers has he in stock?”
Demanding replies from the CM, senior BJP leader Samir Mohanty said, "The CM should come to the public meetings and put forth clear replies on the questions being asked to him at the time of elections. He should not read out drafts from the Gumasta and make videos.”
Responding to it, BJD leader Pradeep Majhi said, "It is natural on the part of the BJP leaders to speak against us. That does not mean we will listen and answer back.”
BJP’s timelines
Apart from raising questions, the BJP leaders have been asserting that the state will be catapulted to number one state after the party comes to power. “Within five years, I will make Odisha number one,” the PM said in a rally.
The BJP leaders are even setting timelines to get things done. These are some of the assurances:
-Four gates of Srimandir will be opened within six hours after coming to power.
-Inventory of the Ratna Bhandar within one and a half months - Releasing the inquiry commission report on the Ratna Bhandar missing key in 100 days
-To implement Ayushman Bharat within 100 days,
-Refund to chit fund victims in one and a half years.
Senior journalist Sandeep Sahu said that both the Chief Minister and his party are silent on these issues. “When one side is completely silent on sensitive issues, people suspect that the CM has no replies to these issues or the government is hiding something,” he observed.