Taking the political battle into the enemy’s zone, the Congress on Saturday held a massive public rally in Kendrapara town in coastal Orissa, nearly 85 km from here.
Around ten thousand people turned out to participate in the rally that was among others addressed by Union ministers Jairam Ramesh and Srikant Jena; Congress general secretary B.K. Hariprasad, secretary Subhankar Sarkar, party state chief Jayadev Jena and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh.
Since Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency is always considered a non-Congress bastion, the success of the Saturday’s rally has sent a strong message to the ruling BJD which fragmented into many camps in this political sensitive district.
Addressing the rally, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said Orissa was struggling achieve socio-economic growth due to the “impaired vision” of the ruling BJD leaders.
A known critic of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Mr Ramesh said although Mr Patnaik did not have the vision to run the state and his party leaders were involved in numerous multi-crore scams and scandals — the latter had consecutively led the BJD to power consecutively for three terms due to his “manoeuvring” skills.
“Naveen is one of the best actors. He acts well as far as showcasing a face of innocence and transparency is concerned. He does nothing, but claims credit for everything. His government is most corrupt, but he creates an impression that it is the most transparent and efficient one. His repackaging of all Central schemes as Orissa’s own programmes is simply an act of surprise and need to be watched with all curiosity,” he mocked.
Union minister for chemicals and fertiliser Srikant Jena said Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik’s days in power were going to be over soon “as the Congress people have started getting united.”
“The BJD government has survived on two things; — anti-UPA stand and falsehood. BJD says the Congress had neglected Orissa. However, the truth is different.
It is the UPA government has given more money to the state than the previous and NDA government.