Kendrapara: Senior leader Bijay Mohapatra organised a meeting near the Gojabayani shrine in Marshaghai block Wednesday.
Thousands of Bijay Sena members, former PRI members, Zilla Parishad members and his supporters attended the meeting to show their solidarity with Bijay Mohapatra and the political decisions that he may take in coming days.
Addressing the gathering, Bijay said he is grateful to his supporters for reposing their confidence in him, and for turning out in large numbers to show their support.
He said in coming days not only he and Dillip Ray, but other leaders too would take decisions jointly.
“Let Dillip Ray return from abroad. He will organise a meeting at the district headquarters shortly and would announce his decision on their future course of action. But it is sure that they would fight for the interests of the state,” said Bijay.
He said the 2019 general elections would be an election of the young in Orissa as he wanted more youths to get an opportunity to enter the fray.
Commenting on the elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Bijay said the BJP’s defeat was due to their leaders’ ego.
The BJP failed to address the problems of farmers and tribal people. Unemployment is another reason for the BJP losing the polls, he said.
“I fought for the state in the Mahanadi row and had asked state BJP leaders too to stand up for the state’s interests and not to make comments supporting Chhattisgarh. As a result I drew flak from party leaders,” said Bijay.
On the Mahanadi dispute, Bijay said the floods in the Mahanadi have finally swept away the Chhattisgarh government.
“Nobody ever thought that a change was on the cards. It is the BJP leaders’ ego that proved to be the party’s undoing in the three states,” he said.
PNN