Rahul Gandhi Accuses Naveen Patnaik of Joining Hands with BJP to Evade Vindictive Crackdown

Balasore: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) during an election rally in Balasore Parliamentary constituency on Thursday. Gandhi alleged that the BJD has forged a partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to evade the saffron party’s “vindictive crackdown politics.”

Highlighting the influence of VK Pandian, a key figure in Patnaik’s government, Gandhi claimed that the state is run by Pandian to “make billionaires, just as PM Modi has made Adani and Ambani billionaires.”

The BJP has been capitalising on Pandian’s outsider status and Patnaik’s reliance on him as a major poll issue, aiming to dethrone the BJD’s dominance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Calling out the alleged BJD-BJP nexus, Gandhi stated, “Both have entered into partnership.”

Questioning Patnaik’s lack of action against the BJP, Gandhi said, “If Chief Minister Naveen Babu had really fought against the BJP, why have no cases been slapped against him? Nothing was done against him because Naveen Babu works for the BJP in Odisha. The objective of the BJP-BJD partnership is to loot the wealth and mineral resources of the Odisha people.”

In a fierce attack on the BJP, Gandhi vowed to protect the Constitution, accusing the BJP and RSS of attempting to destroy it. “This is the first election in which the attempt is on to destroy the Constitution, and ours (INDIA Bloc)’s fight is on to save it,” he said.

Gandhi promised that if the Congress comes to power, it would waive farmers’ loans, abolish the Agnipath scheme, and provide 3 lakh jobs to the youth in Odisha.