Bhubaneswar: With barely hours left in campaigning for Patkura Assembly poll, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik today hit campaign trail for party candidate in the constituency and made promises similar to what he had made in Bijepur during Assembly elections.
The CM visited several panchayats in the Patkura Assembly constituency today and sought votes for Sabitri Agarwalla, wife of former BJD MLA, late Bed Prakash Agarwlla. "You all bless me; vote for Sabitri Agarwalla. I will myself take care of Patkura," the CM said while campaigning in his specially designed bus.
As the CM was scheduled to campaign in the constituency on Wednesday, several MLAs and ministers of the ruling-BJD were seen camping in Patkura while the Odisha Assembly wore a deserted look for the second day today.
A couple of ministers of the State government were seen answering all the questions in the Assembly. Taking a dig at the BJD, Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja said, "There is a drought of ministers in the House and hence, in-charge ministers are answering the questions... All are in Patkura."
BJP MLA Bishnu Sethi said that as CM Naveen is reportedly going to Patkura today, all the MLAs are there to please their supremo.
"Out of 21 ministers, only eight were there in the House. Similarly, of the 111 BJD MLAs, only 61 were present. They are all campaigning in Patkura; for them election campaign is more important than Odisha Assembly. Biju Babu was never seen campaigning like this and it proves that the BJD legislators are not following the principles of the former Chief Minister," said Leader of Opposition, Pradipta Naik.
Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said, "Two ministers answered for five different ministers and that too, they failed in properly presenting the answers. They just tried to cover up the questions."
Contrary to the allegations of the Opposition, government chief whip Pramila Mallick said, "Ministers have several works, events and tours to different districts. The required number of ministers was there in the House present and the Assembly is running smoothly."