Bhubaneswar: The rival political parties in the state Monday tried to corner Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for allegedly ditching the people of Bijepur Assembly constituency by abdicating the seat after winning it with the support of the voters from the area.
Both the state Congress and BJP called the move a pre-planned attempt to counter the saffron party wave in the area. They also claimed that the result of by-election in the constituency will prove whether the voters are happy or not with the Chief Minister’s decision.
Speaking to reporters, senior Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Narasingha Mishra said, “If people are dissatisfied with the Chief Minister they will respond through votes in the by-election and if people are so happy with his decision then they will respond accordingly and will support by voting in his favour.”
On the other hand, the saffron party said that the move was pre-planned by the BJD patriarch. State BJP leader Suresh Pujari said, “The decision to fight from Bijepur was a political ploy. His resignation from the Bijepur seat was a humiliation to the people of Bijepur and Bargarh; it was a betrayal to the whole of western Odisha.”
The BJD, on the other hand, justified the CM’s move to keep Hinjli and quit Bijepur. BJD leader and newly-inducted State Health Minister Naba Das said, “When the Chief Minister himself is saying that he is going to take care of Bijepur, no other question arises. There is no need to be an MLA from the area to develop the area. BJP says ‘we humiliated voters there’ but the voters showed who humiliated whom through their votes in the 2019 elections.”