Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik described his party’s landslide victory in the Jharsuguda bypoll today as a victory of women’s power and the people of Jharsuguda.
Addressing a huge gathering of party workers at the newly inaugurated Sankha Bhawan, the BJD party headquarters, Patnaik congratulated party workers for the massive victory. He thanked them for their hard work and sacrifice despite debilitating summer heat wave conditions.
While expressing his indebtedness to the people of Jharsuguda, he promised that the BJD will further bolster its efforts for the development of Jharsuguda region.
The development process that was initiated by Late Naba Kishore Das will be taken forward, he added.
“During the Padampur bypoll the opposition had insulted our women. In Padampur they had abused our woman candidate by using foul language. Be it Padampur or Jharsuguda they had abused daughters in foul language who had lost their fathers. In every bye-election they have criticised Mission Shakti leaders and workers at the grassroots level, history is witness. People of Odisha have never tolerated such insult to women,” the BJD president said.
“Our daughters are our pride,” he added.
The BJD has been all through encouraging the participation of women in public life. It has provided them with a platform ‘Mission Shakti’ to forcefully raise their voice for their rights.
“Mission Shakti has empowered them by bringing them out of the four walls of the kitchen. Mission Shakti believes in this ideology. The opposition has been always opposing the empowerment of women. This is a dangerous trend. People of Odisha have always rejected such behaviour,” said Patnaik.
He concluded by urging all to come forward and work for the development of Odisha, for democratic values, for cultural dignity, for the dignity of women and for the protection of their rights.
BJD candidate Dipali Das, daughter of slain Health Minister Naba Kishore Das today won the Jharsuguda bypoll by a huge margin of 48,721 votes from her nearest rival Tankadhar Tripathy of the BJP.
