Naveen Patnaik can’t name Odisha districts, detached from ground: PM Narendra Modi

Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on chief minister Naveen Patnaik, saying he was ignorant about the state and indifferent to people’s plights despite being CM for 24 years.
“Naveen Babu, you are chief minister for such long years. Do you know why the people of Odisha are unhappy with you. They are unhappy because…make Naveen babu stand somewhere.Ask him to tell the names of Odisha districts and district headquarters without seeing a paper. A CM who can’t tell the name district headquarters, how he will know about your plights? Can you entrust the future of your children to him?” Modi asked at a rally at Phulbani under Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat.
“That’s why I say, give me five years to serve you. If I fail to make Odisha Number One state in five years, then complain,” he said. On the second day of his two-day Odisha visit, the PM addressed three public meetings, the others being at Balangir and Bargarh. It was for the first time this election season Modi took Naveen’s name while targeting the BJD govt.
In Balangir, Modi told people to ask Naveen a question if he comes to campaign in Kantabanji assembly seat to tell names of 10 villages of Kantabanji where he has been contesting. Modi said Naveen can’t do so without reading it from a piece of paper. “He is cut off from the ground realities,” the PM said. Kantabanji is part of Balangir Lok Sabha.
Stating that the countdown for BJD govt in Odisha had started, Modi said, “Gaje Baaje ke Saath Vida Kijiye (Send them packing on a celebratory note).”
Stating that Odisha’s culture is danger under the current BJD govt, Modi said Modi eminent Odia personalities such as Veer Surendra Sai, Gopabandhu Das, Harekrushna Mahtab and Biju Patnaik must be very sad seeing the state of affairs in Odisha from heaven. “Odia Asmita (self-respect) can’t be mortgaged to someone like this,” he said, in an indirect reference to Tamil Nadu-born VK Pandian’s rise in BJD.
The PM said despite having such massive wealth of mines and minerals, people in Odisha continue to remain poor and migrate for works elsewhere. “Odisha ki barbai hui…Gunhegaar kaun hai (Odisha was ruined, who is responsible?” he asked people. Reiterating his earlier statement made on May 6, Modi said a BJP CM will take oath on June 10.