BJD's role is crucial in next govt formation: Patnaik

Odisha chief minister and ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Sunday said his party will win all the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state in the coming polls and will play a key role in the formation of the next government in New Delhi.

“This time no national party will get a majority in the Lok Sabha. We are going to win all the 21 Parliament seats in the state. And therefore, we will be playing an important role in the formation of the next central government”, Patnaik said while addressing a public meeting in the coastal town of Nayagarh in Nayagarh district to launch his party’s campaign for the ensuing twin polls in the state.

Odisha will go to polls for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly constituencies in the state in four phases starting from Aril 11. In the 2014 simultaneous elections, the BJD had pocketed as many as 20 Lok Sabha constituencies and 117 assembly seats.

Raising the issue of central negligence, Patnaik said, successive governments in New Delhi had always neglected Odisha and Narendra Modi led NDA government was no better. In this context, he cited the example of Indian Railways.

“The Indian Railways earns Rupees 20,000 crore from Odisha every year. And in returns, it spends only Rupees 1000 crore. Our money is being spent for the development of other states and we get only pollution and dust. Is it not negligence on part of the central government?”, the four-time chief minister who is seeking a fifth term in office quipped adding that in the event of a hung Parliament at the centre it will throw up a golden opportunity for his party as well as people in the state to permanently rectify the “historical negligence” of the Centre towards Odisha.

He also said that his party would continue to fight to get special category status for the state.

Appealing people to vote for his party, Patnaik said they were the “high command of BJD. “BJD is the party of the people of Odisha. They are our strength”, the BJD chief said.