Baripada: The BJP, after declaring its MLA candidates in the seven Assembly segments of Mayurbhanj Parliamentary seat, stepped up its campaign Tuesday with Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das addressing rallies at three places for party candidates.
Das addressed rallies at the Kendua College Ground in Bangiriposi Assembly constituency, at Dukura in Baripada Assembly segment and at Kaptipada in Udala Assembly constituency.
Highlighting the development projects in his home state, the Jharkhand CM lashed out at the Odisha government.
“Both Odisha and Jharkhand are endowed with minerals. Jharkhand gets Rs 1,100 crore as royalty from its mining sector. The government has been using the funds for providing basic facilities to the people, but the government of Odisha has failed to do this,” he claimed.
Das asserted that after Gujarat, Jharkhand is emerging as a model state in India. “The people in many pockets of Mayurbhanj have been suffering due to the absence of basic facilities like roads, safe drinking water and joblessness,” he added.
Comparing Jharkhand and Odisha governments in implementing social security schemes, Raghubar said the BJD government provided a monthly pension of Rs 500 to widows and the differently abled while the Jharkhand government gave them Rs 1,000 a month and gives importance to providing jobs to unemployed youths.
He said the Odisha government is not working for the larger interests of the state while the Jharkhand government has declared the Olichiki dialect of Santals as a language and is using it for official communications.
Information is displayed in Olichiki in railway stations in Jharkhand, Das said, adding that following an instruction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the language will be used in all sectors in Mayurbhanj.
The BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Biseswar Tudu, the MLA nominee for Bangiriposi, Sugda Murmu, the MLA nominee for Baripada, Prakash Soren, the MLA candidate in Udala, Bhaskar Madhei, ZP chairperson Sujata Murmu and party leader Kabi Bishnu Satpathy were present at the rallies.
Around 100 people from various other parties joined the BJP on the occasion.
PNN