Bhubaneswar, March 2 : Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) President Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday accused the opposition parties of resorting to negative politics to defame his government during the recently-concluded panchayat polls.
“You all know how the opposition spread false information during the panchayat polls. They have spread fabricated stories to defame my government and indulged in negative politics. However, the people of Odisha have not given them any importance,” he said, while addressing party MPs, MLAs, district presidents and observers through videoconferencing mode this evening.
“As the urban local body elections are nearing, they (opposition) will again spread such misinformation against the BJD government,” he said, adding: “It is the duty of each and every worker of our party to expose the opposition before the public.”
About the BJD’s ideology and development works taken for urban areas, Patnaik said: “We believe in positive politics. Transformative governance and empowerment of people is the hallmark of BJD. A lot of development works have been taken up for the urban areas, which should be highlighted during the campaigning for urban poll.”
He told the BJD leaders to take the developmental programmes to the people and counter the negative politics of the opposition, while thanking party workers for their hard work during the panchayat elections and people of the state for reposing confidence in his party.
Stating his party’s victory in the rural poll has created a new record in the democratic elections, Patnaik said the people across the state have supported the BJD, which would continue to encourage it to work for their welfare.
“In a democracy, the people’s voice is supreme and their verdict in all the panchayats is clear and unambiguous,” he added.
The BJD has won 766 out of 852 zilla parishad (ZP) seats in the rural poll and is in a comfortable position to grab the ZP President chair in all 30 districts.(IANS)