The BJD ruled out that it was jittery over the national executive meet of the BJP where its high-profile leaders emphatically claimed that the saffron party would come to power in Odisha in 2019 and already a process had started to that end.
On the contrary, the regional party in the State said it would strive to counter effectively an anti-incumbency wave against it.
Party spokesperson Pratap Deb said the BJD is not at all worried over the mega road shows and meeting of the BJP and the claims of its leaders, especially of BJP national president Amit Shah, that the party would capture power in Odisha in 2019.
Reacting over the statistics given by the BJP on Odisha’s poverty and its criticism of the Naveen Patnaik Government for having failed to provide basic minimum amenities to the people at the grassroots, Deb said the BJP is trying to mislead with wrong information. He said that the BJP leaders should remember what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had told about the GDP growth of Odisha and his overall appreciation of the BJD Government’s performance during the Make-in-Odisha conclave at Bhubaneswar. Besides, he rubbished the statistics of BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra that Odisha’s poverty rate is 46 per cent.
However, he admitted that there needs to be deep introspection over the lapses of the State Government over the last 17 years and efforts to stand up to the people’s expectations. He stated that since the BJD has been in power in the State for 17 long years, it is natural that it has to face questions on governance. So, the party would sit down and draw up an appropriate strategy for the 2019 polls, he said.
BJD MlA Priyadarshi Mishra said the BJP is making publicity hype by holding such highly-expensive meetings. He stated that public memory is too short; and since the BJP meeting was for two days, it cannot have any lasting spell on the people of Odisha.
Notably, earlier BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik too had said that he was not least bothered about the BJP programmes.