Balangir (Odisha), April 5: Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Thursday launched a fresh salvo at the ruling Biju Janta Dal (BJD) during a rally in Balangir and held Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik responsible for the backwardness in Odisha. Launching a scathing attack on the ruling government Shah said, "Anger towards the Government of Odisha is immense. Even after ruling the state for 18 years, the government is not able to give clean water. I have seen the reactions of the people, I can safely say that change is on its way for the state.” BJP president didn’t let go any chance to criticise Patnaik government, he said,” The central government is like a godown of electricity, they make developmental programs & send it to Odisha. But, in Bhubaneshwar, the transformer has burst into flames.”

BJD’s Rita Sahu wins recent assembly bypolls defeating her nearest BJP candidate Ashok Panigrahi by a margin of 41,933 votes. Odisha is undergoing assembly polls in 2019. Currently BJD is having full majority in the assembly with 118 seats out of 147 seats and BJD has 20 seats in Lok Sabha out of 21 seats. Biju Patnaik is aiming to retain the and eyeing to be chief minister of Odisha for the fifth consecutive time.

After BJD snapped its ties with BJP in 2009, the latter barely managed to hold its ground in the state. BJP won only 6 seats in 2009. Despite Modi wave, BJP won only 10 seats. But in the zila parishad elections held in February 2017, BJP increased its tally from 36 to 297, whereas BJP slips down from 600 to 498 seats. The third prominent party Congress managed to win only 16 seats in 2014 assembly elections as compared to 38 seats in 2009 assembly polls.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 05, 2018 03:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).