Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah on Monday said officers belonging to the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service are ruling Odisha and issued a veiled threat to them, saying they may have to pay a heavy price for being sycophants of the ruling party.
“They (the bureaucrats) are stalling development and fixing BJD (Biju Janata Dal)’s rivals. The officers should remember that no government is permanent. Change is imminent. Unless they shed sycophancy and stop indulging in corrupt activities, they will pay a heavy price when there is a change of guard,” he said, in an apparent dig at officials close to chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
Shah said this while addressing the ‘Mahila Samawesh- Mahila Shakti Kendra Sammelan’ two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Patnaik government of corruption and for ignoring world’s biggest health protection scheme, Ayushman Bharat.
Political analysts said the recent aggression shown by BJP in Odisha is part of its strategy to prevent the Congress from taking the opposition space and to negate its campaign that the BJP and the BJD are allies following the latter’s support of the NDA candidate for the post of deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
”Despite its poor show in the Bijepur assembly bypoll, the BJP's chances are quite good in Odisha and if they can make the contest bipolar, then the Congress will have little room. The BJP might have sensed rising grassroots discontentment against the BJD and thus wanted to take advantage of the situation before the polls,” said political analyst Panchanan Kanungo
{{/usCountry}}”Despite its poor show in the Bijepur assembly bypoll, the BJP's chances are quite good in Odisha and if they can make the contest bipolar, then the Congress will have little room. The BJP might have sensed rising grassroots discontentment against the BJD and thus wanted to take advantage of the situation before the polls,” said political analyst Panchanan Kanungo
{{/usCountry}}Shah also attacked the BJD government for rejecting farmers. He added that he has no doubt that the Biju Janata Dal government will fall in May 2019, when the state goes to the polls along with the Lok Sabha elections.
He pointed at the poor record of the state in dealing with crime against women and in running pro-women Central government programmes such as ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’.
Enthused by good attendance of women at the Prime Minister’s rallies in Odisha on Saturday, Shah listed the Centre’s schemes for women empowerment and benefits. He said 55 million women have benefitted from the Ujjwala (subsidised gas cylinder) scheme.
Shah alleged that the Odisha didn’t allow implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana as it is scared of the rising popularity of Modi in the state. "He (Naveen Patnaik) does not bother about Odia people. We will form government in 2019 and then implement ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme in Odisha,” Shah said.
Of the 147 assembly seats in Odisha assembly, the Biju Janata Dal currently has 118, Congress 16 and the BJP 10. Of the 21 Parliamentary seats in the state, the BJD holds 20, and the BJP one.