Jharsuguda by-election: BJD President and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after winning the Jharsuguda bypoll on Saturday. In a veiled attack on the BJP which lost the Karnataka assembly polls, he said it is good governance and not a ‘double engine’ government that can help a party win elections.
Refusing to name any party, Patnaik said, “Single engine or double engine doesn’t matter. From the point of view of the people, governance is important. Good governance and pro-people governance always wins.”
The BJP had made ‘double engine’ (BJP government in the state and the center) its slogan in Karnataka. Patnaik’s veiled criticism of the ‘double engine’ government is considered politically significant as the opposition BJP has long lured the people of Odisha with quick development if they bring the party to power in the state.
Patnaik had met PM Modi 2 days ago
His remarks come two days after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday. After the meeting, he reaffirmed his party’s policy of going it alone and maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress before the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Odisha assembly elections, at least in 2024.
The meeting with the Prime Minister in the national capital came barely 48 hours after Patnaik met his old friend Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, who had gone to meet him.
When asked, Patnaik had said that as far as he was concerned, there was no possibility of a third front and the BJD would contest elections next year without any national ambition.
BJD Jharsuguda won
On Saturday, BJD candidate, 26-year-old Dipali Das defeated rival BJP candidate Tankadhar Tripathi by a margin of over 48,000 votes in Jharsuguda, where the bypoll was held after her father Naba Kishore Das, who was a minister in Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet. Cabinet, killed.
Reacting to Patak’s statement, Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said, “The chief minister is now talking about good governance in the state. Everyone knows how the government works in Odisha.
“He (Patnaik) is also talking about ‘double engine’ because he knows that the BJP will form the government next time,” he claimed.
(with PTI inputs)