Striking an emotional chord with the crowd by invoking lord Jagannath and late legendary leader Biju Patnaik, BJP prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi started his hour-long address with a few sentences in well pronounced Odia language here at the Vijay Sankalp Samavesh.
His Odia seemed to be much better than Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Modi said he had no intention to belittle Patnaik by speaking Odia, rather he loves Odia and so was his speech in the language. “Odia is a lovely language. I like the language. Odia is the second language in Gujarat where in every district you can find Odia speaking people,” said Modi, giving a message that leaders should have command over various languages.
Through it he seemed to be pointing at Patnaik who is yet to speak fluent Odia even after 14 years as Chief Minister. Earlier, during his visit to Odisha on Rath Yatra last year, Modi had chanted Bande Utkal Janani and also spoken a few sentences in Odia language much to the appreciation of the people.