BJP's top brass plays safe; UP CM Adityanath also goes soft on Odisha CM

Bhawanipatna/Khurda: While the Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going for broke to give a fillip to its electoral campaign in the State, it seems the top brass of the BJP has already chosen to play safe. Earlier, both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and today Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who are considered as the star campaigners of the party, went soft on Odisha government during their visits to the State.

This 'go soft' policy has raised many eyebrows with the Congress alleging that the recent defeat of the BJP in the recently concluded assembly elections in the Hindi-heartland- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan- has forced the saffron party to change its tone and now it is looking out to parties like BJD, AIADMK and Shiv Sena to bail it out in the upcoming elections.

Addressing a public gathering at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi today, UP CM Yogi, contrary to his fire-brand image, targeted Odisha CM Naveen over several issues. "In 19 years of rule Naveen government has constructed only 17 lakh houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, but UP government has already provided 20 lakh houses to poor people in only two years of BJP governance," he said.

Yogi also alleged that the much touted KALIA scheme of Odisha government is already into corruption from the day it was launched while the Modi government's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) yojana is clean and it will immensely benefit farmers across the country.

"Like the panchayat elections, where the electorate reposed their faith on BJP, we expect the same trust of voters during the 2019 polls. If BJP is given a chance in Odisha, the State will have a high growth rate like UP," he added.

CM Yogi also targeted CM Naveen at a public rally in Khurda on Wednesday. he alleged that the Odisha government is disrespecting freedom fighters by not providing land for a Paika Rebellion memorial and it's time to expose the Naveen Patnaik-led government.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, went full throttle, and leveled several allegations against Odisha government. He accused the Naveen government of depriving people of Odisha with quality healthcare and not implementing Centre's Ayushman Bharat Yojana for petty political gains.

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Stating that under the PM-KISAN yojana Modi government has made a budgetary allocation to provide Rs 6000 annually to around 45 lakh farmers in Odisha, Pradhan questioned the reason behind opposing the scheme by the Naveen government.

On farmers' issue, Pradhan further alleged that the Centre has already fixed the MSP (minimum support price) of paddy at Rs 1750 per quintal but farmers in Odisha are forced to sell it at Rs 1000- Rs 1200 due to nexus between mill owners and the ruling-BJD.

However, the BJD refuted all the allegations levelled by the BJP leaders with the party spokesperson Pratap Deb tagging CM Yogi as a 'liar'. Deb said that there is no question of corruption in Odisha government's KALIA scheme as money is being directly credited to the accounts of farmers.

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Responding to CM Yogi's claims of having provided 20 lakh houses to poor people in 2 years, Deb called him a 'liar'. He further said that the 2019 polls will not have a repetition of the results of panchayat elections. "BJD will win more than 100 seats in the upcoming polls," asserted Deb.