Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik (File).
New Delhi:
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik‘s “superior age and well being points” stays a fertile supply of jibes and jeers for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Occasion, which is wrestling the ruling Biju Janata Dal for management of the state’s 147-member Meeting and its 21 Lok Sabha seats.
Mr Modi, 73, on Wednesday claimed, with out showing to current proof, a “conspiracy behind the sudden deterioration of Naveen Patnaik’s well being”, and vowed to kind a committee to inquire into the 77-year-old Chief Minister’s medical historical past.
At a rally in Odisha’s Baripada, the Prime Minister requested, “Is there a conspiracy behind the sudden deterioration of Naveen Patnaik’s well being? Is the foyer at the moment operating the Patnaik authorities on his behalf liable for sudden deterioration of his well being?”
“If the BJP varieties the federal government in Odisha… it’ll represent a committee to establish the rationale behind the deterioration of Naveen Patnaik’s well being,” the Prime Minister thundered.
The not-so-hidden goal of Mr Modi’s allegation – additionally trumpeted by different BJP leaders, together with Dwelling Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma – is VK Pandian, a senior BJD chief from Tamil Nadu broadly seen because the Chief Minister’s right-hand man, and who was seen attempting to cowl his boss’ shaking fingers throughout a marketing campaign speech.
https://twitter.com/himantabiswa/status/1795407394346037343?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Mr Pandian – who has performed down discuss he’s a chief minister-in-waiting – has additionally been mocked by Amit Shah, whose celebration has thrown all the things and the kitchen sink this election to win over voters in Tamil Nadu, the place it has no traction, as a “Tamil babu”.
READ | Naveen Patnaik Ought to Retire Due To “Superior Age”: Amit Shah
“Naveen babu has made a Tamil officer ruler… Oust the BJD (and) we are going to give a younger Odia-speaking Chief Minister… babus have looted the state…” Mr Shah declared final week.
“If BJP is voted to energy a bhumiputra (son of the soil) will rule, not a Tamil babu.”
Mr Patnaik has rubbished the assaults.
Final Friday he accused the BJP of spreading falsehoods and identified he has been campaigning, for the previous month, throughout the state. “There’s a restrict to the lies the BJP can inform. As you may see… I’m in excellent well being,” he advised information company ANI.
READ | “Am In Very Good Well being”: Patnaik On “Superior Age” Jabs
And on Tuesday, after the video of Mr Pandian masking his hand emerged, the BJD boss took the BJP to process for making “non-issues into points”. “This may definitely not work.”
READ | “Will not Work”: Patnaik Snuffs Out BJP “Dialogue” On His Palms
The assaults by Mr Modi come because the BJP chucks its greatest weapons on the ruling BJD to say a first-ever Meeting election win and win as a lot of its Lok Sabha seats as potential.
The BJP has by no means had a state authorities in Odisha; the state has normally flipped between the BJD and the Congress. Mr Patnaik has been the Chief Minister since March 2000. On the Lok Sabha entrance, the BJP is ploughing on – regardless of challenges from the Congress-led INDIA bloc – in the direction of its aim of ‘abki baar, 400 paar’ and a 3rd consecutive time period on the centre.
In 2019 the BJD gained 12 of 21 Lok Sabha seats – eight seats fewer than final time – and the BJP obtained eight. The saffron celebration additionally registered a thumping 16.9 per cent enhance in vote share.
READ | VK Pandian Lists BJP ‘Self Objectives’ That Will Assist Naveen Patnaik
The assaults additionally seem to point the BJP is nervous by Mr Pandian, maybe extra so than the Chief Minister himself, towards whom they’ve levelled comparatively commonplace claims of getting didn’t develop the state over the previous 24 years.
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