Odisha Byelection: Union Ministers, Top BJD & Congress Leaders Go All Out to Woo People

GG News Bureau

Bargarh, 28th Nov. As the campaign for the December 5 bypoll to Padampur heats up, the state’s three major political parties — the ruling BJD, the BJP, and the Congress — go all out to woo the people of the assembly constituency, with top leaders hitting the campaign trail.

On Sunday, two union ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar and Ashwini Vaishnaw, attacked the BJD government over farmers’ issues and other development work, as they stepped up their campaign for BJP candidate Pradip Purohit, the party’s Odisha unit Krushak Morcha chief.

Similarly, at least ten BJD ministers and nearly three dozen MLAs descended on the campaign trail to support nominee Barsha Singh Bariha.

In the segment, Odisha Congress chief Sarat Pattnayak and leaders Jaydev Jena and Niranjan Patnaik were seen campaigning for party candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu.

Addressing two election meetings in the bypoll-bound Odisha seat, where farmers form a sizable chunk of the population, Tomar, the Union agriculture minister, claimed that the BJD government’s slow pace of work resulted in delayed disbursement of crop insurance in the state.

The state’s ruling BJD and opposition BJP have been blaming each other for the delay in payment of crop insurance to drought-affected farmers.

“The Centre has long released funds for crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The farmers here did not get the money due to the Odisha government’s slow pace of work.

“Instead of settling all claims, the state government is now misleading people with fake allegations,” Tomar said, adding that no party should politicise issues that affect farmers’ interests.

Tomar urged people to vote for Purohit, claiming that farmers would not have suffered if the saffron party had formed the state government.

“Padampur bypoll, if won by the BJP, will send a clear message to the people of Odisha that winds of change are blowing in the state,” he maintained.

The death of MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha in October, whose elder daughter has been fielded by the BJD, necessitated the bypoll to Padampur.

The election will take place on December 5, and the results will be announced three days later.

At the public meeting, Vaishnaw claimed that BJD leaders had been “misleading people with lies” about a proposed rail line project in Bargarh district, which includes the bypoll-bound assembly segment.

“The state’s commerce and transport minister, Tukuni Sahu, and ex-MP Prasanna Acharya have been wrongly blaming the Centre for the non-implementation of the Bargarh-Nupada rail line project,” he said.

“I am throwing an open challenge to Odisha government that if it provides land for the rail line tomorrow, we will start work the very next day,” he asserted.

The Narendra Modi government had been pumping in funds to strengthen the railway infrastructure in Odisha, he said.

“While the previous UPA government had allotted Rs 800 crore in annual budget for railway development in Odisha, PM Modi enhanced it to Rs 10,000 crore,” he noted.

Rejecting Union ministers’ claims, BJD vice-president Prasanna Acharya stated that the responsibility for constructing a rail line lies with the Centre.

“In 2019, the railway ministry had said that building this rail line was not viable following a survey and announced that the project has been be shelved,” he said at a rally, further urging Vaishnaw to make public documents where the Centre has sought land for the project.

In response to Tomar’s claim, Bariha stated that farmers only receive crop insurance money because of the chief minister’s pressure.

“If there had not been a by-poll, the farmers would not have received crop insurance,” she said, after leading a padayatra, road shows, and roadside meetings in the Padamppur Notified Area Council (NAC) area on Sunday.

Attacking both the BJD and the BJP, Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu said Union and state ministers are “migratory birds” who visit the segment during elections but “do nothing for the welfare of the people there later.”

“The visit of Union Ministers and Odisha ministers will have no impact on people here. Some of them visited the constituency for the first time. People of Padmapur will reject them,” Sahu, a three-time MLA from the seat, added.