Bhubaneswar, April 2: BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik today began the exercise to understand the reasons behind the party's less-than-satisfactory results in the three-tier panchayat elections that concluded in February.
Naveen today met the elected representatives from the districts of Jajpur and Koraput at the party head office and spoke to them for nearly two-and-a-half hours.
The party's MLAs and MPs were also present at the meeting. Tomorrow, Naveen will meet the elected representatives from the district of Mayurbhanj.
At the meeting, the party president asked the elected representatives to remain honest and work for the development of the people. He also asked them to win the confidence of the people and said that he would hold another meeting to review the situation after six months.
"I have just had a meeting with the winning candidates. I ask them to work honestly and told them I would meet them and review the situation again after six months," Naveen told reporters.
Party spokesperson Amar Satpathy said: "Our president has asked the elected representatives to reach the doorsteps of the people and educate them about the various development programmes that the state government has undertaken."
Dasarathpur block chairman Sujata Sahu said: "We will try to understand the people's problems and solve them. Work of each panchayat will be reviewed."
In another development, the BJP today started chalking out strategies on how to wrestle power in Odisha in the 2019 elections.
Hundreds of people from Nayagarh and Angul districts, including former MLA Sitakanta Mishra and film comedian Harihar Mohapatra, joined the BJP today in presence of the Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan.
Pradhan said: "The national executive meeting will be held on April 15 and 16. There, we will finalise our game plan to come to power in 2019. The people have started losing their faith in the state government. Exodus from the BJD has begun. The people have accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader."
The Union minister also spoke about how kerosene meant for the poor was not reaching the people because of bungling.
However, state food and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma denied the allegation saying that the state was getting less fuel than its allotment quota.
BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said: "We are ready to face any challenge. We will remain the number one party in 2019. Their national executive meeting will have no impact on the BJD's popularity."
