Naveen’s Development Agenda Triumphs As Padampur Blesses Barsha Singh Bariha With Record Votes

Sambalpur: Padampur by-polls are over and the Biju Janata Dal candidate Barsha Singh Bariha has won with thumping majority. While Naveen magic continues in the state, it was inevitable that the BJD candidate will win and portray the mood of the people of Odisha. As predicted, the Bharatiya Janata Party had to taste the bitter defeat despite its many efforts to fool the people of Padampur with false promises and negative propaganda about the Government. People of Padampur have shown the door to the BJP and again voted for development and good governance. The results of Padampur by-polls have proved that the development politics of the Biju Janata Dal and the charismatic leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have no alternative.

While the people of Padampur have elected the daughter of former MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha as their leader wholeheartedly, they have also taught a lesson to the BJP for maligning and insulting an woman. What is of importance is that the BJP leaders had taken the high voltage Padampur by-poll as the semi-final before the 2024 elections. Today’s result has already brought to the fore the despair of the saffron camp leaders before the final match. Today’s massive mandate for the BJD shows people’s continued faith and confidence on the leadership and good governance of Naveen Patnaik.

Dhamnagar by-election was an exception in BJD’s victory journey. Suraj Suryavanshi could capitalize the sympathies of the people towards his father late Bishnu Sethi and win. On the other hand, the BJD had also not given much importance in Dhamnagar like other elections. Even, supremo Naveen Patnaik himself did not go for campaigning there. In such a situation, after many years, the BJP got its first taste of victory in Dhamnagar. In the Padmapur by-election also, the party started day dreaming of a similar victory.

The BJP took the Padampur by-polls as the semi-final before 2024, and started dreaming of forming the government after the 2024 general elections. The saffron party swung into the election mode first and used its total strength and machinery in Padampur. The party also fielded its experienced leader and former MLA Pradeep Purohit. For the first time, the party engaged all the MPs and MLAs of the state for campaigning in Padampur. It also called its four Union Ministers to campaign for Pradip Purohit. While the BJP leaders engaged themselves in divisionary campaign and propagated false information regarding Central negligence to Odisha, they were unable to counter the development agenda of the Biju Janata Dal. Now the party has got a humiliating defeat as the people of Padmapur have gave a befitting reply. The victory of BJD in Padampur by-election has a larger ramification for the party and State. The political resilience of Naveen Patnaik and BJD is unequivocally proved by the successes in the by-elections held in Odisha after the 2019 elections. In all these campaigns, the BJD went to the people with its development agenda for the State.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has received the jolt as it tried to mislead the people of Padampur on Bargarh-Nuapada Railway line and Pradhan Mantri Phasal Bima Yojana. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik himself went to Padampur for campaigning and gave a befitting reply to the BJP’s false narratives. He brought to the fore the real face of the BJP. On the other hand, BJP’s attempts to malign the image of Barsha and using abusive remarks on her in the absence of her father have boomeranged. The BJP even tried to malign the people’s sympathies towards Barsha demonstrating how much respect they are giving to women.

Especially, while the behavior and speech of the BJP party leaders crossed limits during the campaigning, incidents such as Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan himself inciting violence have cause damage to the party’s prospects. The learned voters of Padampur have rejected the BJP despite, Union Minister DHarmendra Pradhan promising to open a Kendriya Vidyalay in Padampur, railway connectivity to Padampur and opening many central institutions.
While more than half of the people of Padampur directly or indirectly depend on Kendu leafs, the central government is imposing 18 percent GST on that. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rightly questioned the rationale behind imposing 18 percent GST on Kendu leaf and only 3 percent GST on Gold Jewelry thereby shutting the mouth of the BJP leaders.

All these issues and the people’s negative perception towards the Center led to the defeat of the party in Padampur. People of Padampur have chosen the daughter of Bijay Bariha to lead them and complete the dreams of her father to take development to new height. The Padampur by-poll verdict has unequivocally affirmed people’s uninterrupted and unconditional support for the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his party Biju Janata Dal for numerous people-centric development and transformative initiatives. The BJD has once again demonstrated its grassroots strength in Bargarh district. The by-poll has paved the way for a humiliating defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next general elections.