Bhubaneswar, Sept. 8: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today sought to downplay the visit of BJP president Amit Shah saying it was unlikely to have an impact on the state politics.
"I don't see any impact," said Naveen while reiterating his doubts about the BJP achieving its professed target of winning more than 120 seats in the state in the next Assembly elections.
Naveen was also critical of Shah's comment at a news conference here that BJD leaders would not be able to understand his logic behind the claim of the BJP getting 120 seats in the state.
Shah has mocked those casting doubts on his claims saying age was catching up with them.
"I don't know what (sic) he is doubting about my age," the chief minister said today.
Shah continued to target the Naveen government on the concluding day of his visit to the state equating it with a "burnt transformer" and calling upon his party workers to "throw it into the sea".
However, the BJD described Shah as "Blue Whale virus" who was speaking the "language of a demon" in a reference to the deadly online game that has the world in a tizzy. The party also targeted Shah for calling Odias poor who migrate to other states for livelihood.
Taking a dig at the state government, he said: "Naveen has done one thing in the last 17 years - making people migrate to other states in pursuit of livelihood. They are a part of the development of other states, but here they don't get chance to be party to the development process. This is because a non-performing government is ruling the state. If a BJP government comes to power, there will be development in the state."
Equating Naveen with a burnt transformer, he said: "The Modi government at the Centre is like a power house. It sends different development projects through its power corridor. But the state being a burnt transformer is unable to receive the power. There is a need to throw out the burnt transformer and replace it with a new transformer that can receive the energy and then send it to people's house."
He said the Naveen Patnaik government had become nervous after the panchayat poll results. Shah said: "Even in his sleep he dreams of lotus. None can stop the BJP from coming to power in June 2019."
Issuing a veiled threat to the BJD, Shah said that once his party came to power all those involved in scams and scandals would be put behind bars. The BJP chief also targeted Naveen's poor knowledge of Odia.
"I want to beg apology for not being able to speak Odia but I want to know whether others unable to speak the language have done so," he said without naming Naveen.
Other BJP leaders, including Dhamendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, also hit out against the state government at the meeting of BJP's booth-level workers.
The BJD on its part deployed former ministers - Pratap Deb, Sanjay Dasburma and Arun Sahu - to defend it from the attack of Shah and his colleagues.
Deb said the BJP should come out with a list of projects being funded by the Centre to back its claim of pumping in large amounts of funds in the state.
"We want to give them a month in which they should list out for which projects they are giving funds," said Deb.
In his speech, Shah had said that nearly Rs 4 lakh crores worth funds had been given to Odisha.
