Nadda asks people to give rest to Naveen

Bhubaneswar: The BJP national president, Jagat Prakash Nadda, on Thursday appealed to the people of Odisha to give rest to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and allow the BJP to form a government in the State.

Addressing election rallies at Karanjia and Dhamnagar, Nadda said the Odisha government has been ''outsourced''. He claimed that the people's representatives like MLAs and MPs are unable to meet the Chief Minister. The government in the State needs to be changed to get rid of this practice, Nadda said.

"Is there is no son or daughter of Odisha who can run the administration here? Who is stopping the MPs and MLAs of Odisha from reaching the seat of Chief Minister?" he asked.

Though Nadda did not name anyone, he was apparently referring to bureaucrat-turned-BJD leader V K Pandian, a close associate of the Chief Minister. The BJP has been calling him an "outsider" in Odisha's politics.