In the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state, BJP president Amit Shah, while appealing public to vote for the BJP in the impending elections, likened the Naveen Patnaik government to a "burnt transformer" and the Narendra Modi government to a "high capacity electricity production unit."
"The electricity cannot reach your home from the High tension line directly, a transformer has to be put in place. Narendra Modi government in Delhi is like a big electricity producing unit which sends a lot of development for Odisha, a huge amount of money, but the Odisha government is like a burnt transformer," Shah said at a rally here on Monday. "The electricity cannot reach your home with the burnt transformer. We have to throw the burnt transformer, not replace it."
The BJP president claimed that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cannot deliver his speeches in Odiya without holding a note in his hand.
"The state was founded on the basis of language, 19 years have passed and Odisha never got a Chief Minister who can speak in Odiya. Naveen Patnaik cannot deliver his speeches in Odiya without holding a paper in his hand. You should choose a Chief Minister who can understand your pain and sorrow in your own language, only BJP can give such CM to the state and not BJD," he said.
Shah also said that the Centre had sent a huge corpus for Odisha's development, which, he claimed, ended up in the "pockets of corrupt BJD officials" as commission.
"In the last five years 5 lakh 56 thousand crore was sent by the Prime Minister for Odisha, but its benefits didn't reach your homes. These BJD officials took the commission and have eaten the money," said Shah.
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The BJP chief also said the country is enthusiastic about Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister again.
"Wherever I go, be it Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, I hear 'Modi, Modi, Modi'. The country is eager to make him Prime Minister once again," said Shah.
Odisha will vote in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The state will be voting simultaneously for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats.