Puri, July 19 (UNI) BJP President J P Nadda on Friday urged the party leaders in Odisha to strengthen the organisation, connect with the people and bring the common man’s problems to the notice of the government.
Addressing the Odisha BJP’s first executive committee meeting in Puri after the formation of the saffron outfit's first government in the state, Nadda said BJP will continue to make all efforts for the development of Odisha.
The BJP will leave no stone unturned to develop Odisha and also serve the people of the state to ensure overall welfare of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people, he said.
Nadda thanked the people of Odisha for giving a massive mandate to the BJP to form the government in the state to serve them.
He said the party believes in “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikash”and will work for the development of the tribals in the state as 14 Adivasis have been elected on the lotus symbol in the recent elections.
He reminded the party leaders of their greater responsibility and said the leaders who have got the new posts after the formation of the government should think that they have not received the post but the responsibility.
Nadda said he had asked party's Odisha President Manmohan Samal to double the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, but the party won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats garnering 45 percent of votes in the parliamentary elections and grabbed 40.7 percent votes in the Assembly polls to form the government in the state.
He said NDA-led governments are now ruling in 18 states, of which 13 states have BJP-led governments.
According to Nadda, BJP governments are ruling over 58 percent of the total geography of the country and 57 percent of the total population.
Coming down heavily on the Congress, the BJP president said the party has become a political ‘parasite’and was winning the elections with the support of other parties.
The Congress, Nadda said, weakens the party with whom it associates, though it lives only on the votes of associate parties. The Congress suffered defeat wherever the regional parties snapped their relationship with the party.
He also slammed the Congress for having no regards to the Constitution, dubbing the Congress as not the protector, but destroyer of the Constitution
He recalled how over 1,25,000 people were put behind bars under MISA during the emergency "You ask Naveen Babu how his father Biju Babu was put behind bars during the emergency", he said.
Former Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Chandra Sekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and hundreds of ministers were also sent to jail during the emergency, Nadda said adding that the Congress party had dissolved elected governments ninety times during its rule and was now trying to educate people about the Constitution.
Among others, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, State BJP President Manmohan Samal, BJP National Vice President Baijayant Panda, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan & Jual Oram, Deputy Chief Ministers Pravati Parida and KV Singh Deo, party's Odisha in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar , council of ministers, MPs and MLAs were present in the meeting. UNI DP SSP