Bhubaneswar, Nov. 23: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today toured Bargarh, Deogarh and Jharsuguda districts and launched a programme for providing crop insurance to farmers.

Naveen has been touring west Odisha, considered the stronghold of the BJP, for the past two days and assiduously wooing the electorate ahead of the rural polls.

The BJP is also pulling out all stops to make its rally in Bhubaneswar on Friday, which will be addressed by party national president Amit Shah, a success.

Yesterday, Naveen visited Sambalpur and inaugurated an array of projects.

The BJP, which is also in an aggressive poll campaign mode, had staged demonstrations protesting against Naveen's visit to Sambalpur and many of its workers, including former minister Jayanarayan Mishra, were put under preventive arrest.

West Odisha is important for the BJP as most of important leaders, including state president Basant Panda and legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo, hail from the area. Out of its 10 MLAs, eight are from this region. BJP's lone Lok Sabha MP from the state Jual Oram also hails from Sundargarh district in west Odisha.

At Bargarh, the chief minister today said: "About 11.61 lakh farmers will get Rs 1,776 crore towards their crop insurance. From Bargarh alone, one lakh farmers will get Rs 276 crore from this account."

Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Bargarh district on February 21 and addressed a farmers' rally there.

Under the crop insurance scheme, farmers of Sambalpur district will get Rs 100 crore, those of Balangir will receive Rs 370 crore and farmers of Kalahandi will get Rs 166 crore. "Six lakh farmers from across 10 districts in west Odisha will benefit from the scheme," Naveen said.

Stating that the state government was committed to the cause of the farmers, the chief minister said: "Last year, the state government had declared that Rs 100 per quintal would be given to farmers for the loss of paddy during the drought, and the pledge has been fulfilled. Money has already been disbursed to the accounts of the farmers."

Aware that the BJP is on the back foot on the Mahanadi water dispute, Naveen raised the issue at the meeting. "Chhattisgarh is hatching a conspiracy to deprive our farmers of Mahanadi water. The Chhattisgarh government is planning to give water to industrial houses at the cost of farmers by building barrages in the Mahanadi upstream. We have urged the Centre to constitute a tribunal to settle the dispute," he said.

The Odisha unit of the BJP has been on the back foot on the issue, because Chhattisgarh is also ruled by the BJP and there have been allegations that the BJP government at the Centre is favourably disposed towards Chhattisgarh.

On November 16, Naveen had visited Kalahandi and laid the foundation stone for a medical college.

He had also inaugurated a slew of other projects, including water supply projects, grid sub-stations and mini stadiums, in Kalahandi.

However, while the BJD is making all out efforts to put an end to the BJP's influence in west Odisha, the BJP is also trying hard to make its presence felt in the coastal belt which is dominated by the BJD. The national party has two MLAs - Bibhutibhushan Harichandan from Chilika and Gobinda Chandra Das from Remuna - from the politically-sensitive coastal belt.

BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma said: "Amit Shah's meeting in Bhubaneswar will expose the misdeeds of the Naveen Patnaik's government."