Amit Shah challenges Naveen Patnaik on home turf

Berhampur (Odisha): Odisha chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik’s support to Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA’s presidential candidate, does not seem to be adequate enough to pacify his arch rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The saffron party — which is seething in anger since it was thrown out of a decade-old alliance by the BJD in 2009 — on Tuesday made it clear that it was bent upon on its mission to capture power in Odisha in 2019.

Addressing party workers at Hugulapata in Ganjam district, BJP president Amit Shah said his party was strengthening its position in all 36,000 booths in Odisha and it was poised to win the 2019 Assembly polls in the state by a two-third majority. “Under the 17 years rule of the BJD, Odisha has not made much progress. Not all villages in the state have electricity. Nor all families have their own toilets. Many villages also do not have water connections and youths are battling unemployment problem. People here are disenchanted towards this non-performing government and they would throw it away in the 2019 polls,” Mr Shah, who is on a three-day trip to the state, told the party workers. The BJP supremo observed that despite being rich in minerals, natural resources and hundreds of kilometres of coastline, Odisha continued to be a poor state and is “far behind” in terms of development.