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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi kicked off the party’s campaign at a massive rally in Salipur in the Kendrapara parliamentary constituency of Odisha by coining a new acronym — PANN — to hit out at the BJD and BJP.
“Over here (Odisha), BJD and BJP are bound by marriage (BJD aur BJP ki shaadi ho rakhi hai) or you may call it a partnership. They are together. And, in this marriage, they have given PANN to the people of Odisha,” he said. Until a few weeks ago, alliance talks between ruling BJD and opposition BJP, which failed to fructify, had stormed political discussions in the state.
“Bahut paan aap ne kha liya, pet kharab ho gaya. Ab aap Congress ki sarkar layiye”, Gandhi said, trying to win over the voters. He also paid tributes to Utkal Gouraba late Madhusudhan Das at Satyabhamapur in Cuttack.
The Congress leader elaborated on the acronym PANN, calling it a grouping of VK Pandian, Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The Congress’s PANN is a caustic take on the colloquial paan (betel leaves chewed with acrea nuts) that every Odia is familiar with.
The first person mentioned in Gandhi’s attack was VK Pandian, former IAS officer, 5T secretary and a close aide of Naveen Patnaik who wields considerable power in the state despite his Tamilian roots.
Accusing BJP and BJD of corruption, Gandhi said: “Your entire wealth has been stolen by these people. In the mining scam, Rs 9 lakh crore of your wealth was stolen, you lost Rs 20,000 crore in land grab where farmers’ fields were acquired. Another Rs 15,000 crore were stolen in the plantation scam.” The MP promised to return the money when the Congress forms the government in the state and at the Centre.
Drawing parallels between Odisha and Telangana, Gandhi argued that in the latter, it was actually the Congress that had played the role of the opposition.
“BJP and BRS were married. Every day, their baraat used to be taken out, there was a lot of drama. In Telangana, the Congress exposed the BJP and BRS as one and the same. If anyone was playing the role of the opposition, it was the Congress.”
Expanding on the Telangana story, Gandhi claimed that the party’s ‘guarantees’ which ensured that the poor in Telangana got money directly in their bank accounts resulted in a win for the Grand Old Party in the state.
In 2019, Congress’s score in the assembly elections was a dismal nine out of 147 in Odisha. In terms of vote share, it lost nearly 10 per cent, dipping from 25.7 per cent in 2014 to 16.1 per cent in 2019.
Gandhi, who touched Odisha during his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, wooed voters with his party’s performance in Telangana and Karnataka. He promised that just as Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana have transferred Rs 2,000 every month into the bank accounts of women, the same will be done in Odisha if voted to power. Other promises included Rs 3,000 per month for youth, 200 units of free electricity, gas cylinders at Rs 500 instead of Rs 1,100, and support price of Rs 3,000 per quintal of paddy for farmers.
Odisha goes for simultaneous polls. In 2019, Congress had won just one of the 21 parliamentary seats, Koraput, by a wafer-thin margin of 3,000 votes. The Grand Old Party’s vote share dipped by a massive 13 per cent from 26 per cent in 2014 to 13.8 per cent in 2019. In the five years between 2014 and 2019, the BJP replaced the Congress as the principal opposition party in Odisha, gaining rapidly at the latter’s expense.
Targeting over 22 per cent of the state’s tribal population, Gandhi said: “Narendra Modi has insulted the adivasis of Hindustan. He has called you vanvasi and not adivasi. You are not vanvasi. You are the first owners of Hindustan. This land was yours. Congress party will give you back the rights of zameen, jal aur jangal.”
Meanwhile, the BJD and BJP said Gandhi ‘s campaign will have no impact in the state.
Given the apparent proximity between the BJD and the BJP, the big question is whether Rahul Gandhi can revive the dwindling fortunes of the party in a state it ruled 25 years back.
Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
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