Naveen Patnaik assaults Odisha BJP, says it’s ‘demeaning nice sons of the soil’

“Makes an attempt are additionally being made to alter historical past, however they need to do not forget that historical past displays the connecting expertise of a nation over a time frame. It can’t be modified at anyone’s pleasure,” Patnaik mentioned at a gathering of occasion employees on the event of Biju Patnaik’s dying anniversary on Thursday.

Patnaik didn’t identify the BJP or the state authorities led by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi in his speech that comes towards the backdrop of vandalisation of Biju Patnaik’s statues in Bolangir and Cuttack and renaming at the very least a dozen schemes during the last 10 months that had been initially named after Naveen’s father and former chief minister Biju Patnaik.

Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal mentioned Patnaik’s accusations have been politically motivated. “We maintain immense respect for Biju Patnaik, and at present is supposed for individuals to supply their tributes to him. His (Naveen Patnaik’s) statements are political rhetoric, and I feel it’s unbecoming of a former chief minister to make such remarks,” he mentioned.

Patnaik is more likely to be elected unopposed because the BJD president for the ninth time on April 19. He filed his nomination for the occasion’s prime put up. Nobody else from the occasion has filed towards him.

The BJD, nonetheless, has been unable to call presidents of 15 districts following variations within the occasion after a few of its Rajya Sabha MPs voted in favour of Waqf regulation. There are murmurs that some BJD leaders are discussing plans to drift a brand new political entrance on Monday.

Senior BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain has written to the BJD chief, calling for structural reforms inside the BJD on the bottom that the occasion had moved away from its social base. In his letter, Swain urged Patnaik not let a couple of people “hijack the BJD and deform the social cloth or deepen regional imbalance”.