Bhubaneswar: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Sunday courted controversy by likening Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to Lord Jagannath, and Deputy Chief Ministers KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida to the sibling deities – Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. It may be recalled that BJP leader and Puri MP Sambit Patra had said during the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections that Lord Jagannath was the devotee of PM Narendra Modi, which he later admitted that it was a slip of tongue and a blunder.
Pradhan said this while addressing a ceremony organised by Odisha BJP here to felicitate the party’s 20 MPs and 78 MLAs elected in recently held Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state. The Union minister said, “Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and two Deputy Chief Ministers KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida are like Lord Jagannath and his siblings Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra who have been given a big responsibility for the development of the state.” A lot of first-time MLAs and MPs have been elected in this election and the state, for the first time, has CM and Deputy CMs belonging to the BJP. With this team, a new Odisha will be built which will help in building a ‘Viksit Bharat’, Pradhan said.