Naveen Patnaik campaigns for the civic polls at Bhimatangi on Sunday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: On the penultimate day of campaigning, the top three parties went the extra mile to win over voters.

In an AAP-like move, the Congress has promised free electricity to people using upto 200 units of power in a month. This provoked sharp criticism from the BJD, which said that the corporation had no jurisdiction over power tariff.

Even Congress veteran and Union minister Srikant Jena today talked about “free power” to the people, which energy minister Arun Sahu termed as a false promise.

“Congress should come out for an open debate on the issue as most power tariff in most Congress-ruled states are much higher rate than that of Odisha,” he said.

While the BJD and the Congress stepped up their campaign today, a preparatory meeting for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s February 11 tour to the state has spoiled the day for the BJP.

BJP sources said former minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan was perhaps the lone senior leader managing the show with office-bearers in 10 wards today, while

Nilagiri MLA Pratap Sarangi had only 20 minutes to spare for the campaign.

“The senior leaders should have deferred the preparatory meet, but the central leadership stuck to the date though campaigning for the corporation polls is crucial for the state BJP,’’ said a leader.

The BJD, however, had star campaigner Naveen Patnaik and a host of film personalities to reach out to voters. Naveen toured 13 wards under the Ekamra Assembly constituency in morning hours today. People gathered near the slums in Forest Park and Kargil Basti on the Palaspalli-Pokhariput road hours before he reached those areas.

Party spokesperson Narendra Swain said: “Cine stars have become members of our party, but we still think that our party president is the only star campaigner in BJD.’’

The Congress leaders Srikant Jena and state unit president Jaydev Jena toured 10 wards in two phases today. They attacked the BJD government for its failure to address problems of the urban poor.

Poll preparation

The focus on poll-related activities has now shifted to BJB College campus, where work for commissioning EVMs has started.

Vandalism

Around 200 supporters of Independent candidate Biranchi Narayan Mahasupkar allegedly ransacked a pandal of BJD candidate Chandrasekhar Malia of ward No. 59 in Kapilaprasad village just before the visit of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.