India News | Saffron Tsunami Hits Odisha Elections: Himanta
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that Odisha was hit by a saffron "tsunami" and there is no doubt about the BJP forming government in the state.
Bhubaneswar, May 28 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that Odisha was hit by a saffron "tsunami" and there is no doubt about the BJP forming government in the state.
The Lok Sabha and assembly elections are held simultaneously in the state.
Sarma, who has been campaigning in Odisha for the past few days, said, “When I held the first election meeting in Odisha, I saw a small wave in favour of the BJP. But today, I saw a tsunami for the BJP in Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur areas.
"I had witnessed a similar experience in Chhattisgarh where there was a small wave first and later it converted into a tsunami when the election came to an end,” Sarma said.
The people of Odisha, which have a long history of self-respect and pride, will never surrender before V K Pandian, a close aide of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and a bureaucrat-turned-BJD leader.
Pandian was born in Tamil Nadu, studied in Delhi and started his career as a Punjab cadre IAS officer, but shifted to Odisha cadre after marrying an Odiya. The BJP has been calling him an “outsider” in Odisha's politics.
Sarma claimed his party is going to win at least 100 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly and 17 of the total 21 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state.
As cyclone Remal affected a portion of Assam, the Odisha CM has offered help to the state.
Responding to this, Sarma said, “A small portion of the state was affected by the cyclone and it is under our control. If something major happens, I will seek help from Naveen babu without any prestige issue.”
Reacting to BJD's jibe that Assam's debt burden is higher in comparison to Odisha, the chief minister said, “My state's budget size is Rs 1.20 lakh crore and I cannot compete with Odisha. But, around 1 lakh government posts are lying vacant in Odisha, which means the state saves about Rs 500 crore every month”
Sarma said that his government is providing petrol at a price of Rs 96 per litre while it is Rs 101 in Odisha.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)