Bhubaneswar: The BJD on Monday hit back at Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who earlier in the day had dubbed his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik’s visit to Surat as a political stunt.
“What is the reason behind the Gujarat Chief Minister’s visit to Odisha in the absence of our Chief Minister? Is he here only to talk about the Rafale deal and the Supreme Court verdict when the Union Home Minister could have given his statement on this matter? The fact is that the BJP is apprehensive about the visit of our Chief Minister to Gujarat,” BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pratap Deb told mediapersons here.
He also sought a clarification from the Gujarat Chief Minister on the action his government has so far taken in the massive chit fund scam in his state in which the Ponzi companies had duped thousands of people, including non-resident Odias of Surat, of over hundreds of crore.
Briefing the media earlier in the day, the Gujarat Chief Minister said how come that the Chief Minister remembered about Odias in Gujarat after remaining in power for 19 years. “Gujarat is not going to polls but Odisha is heading for the Assembly elections,” he observed.
Criticising the Odisha Chief Minister for setting aside Ayushman Bharat scheme and rolling out Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, Rupani said by doing so, the former has deprived the Odia people in Surat of the benefits of the central healthcare scheme which they could have availed in Gujarat.
Commenting on the visit of the Odisha Chief Minister to Surat, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena said that the former had become a migrant worker and should stay in Surat as one.
“The Chief Minister has made Odisha a dadan (migrant) state. Since there is no employment in Odisha, people in thousands from the rural areas have left their homeland for a job in the other states to eke out their living. It is a matter of utter shame that the Chief Minister has gone to Surat to beg Odia people there for vote,” he pointed out.
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