Amit Shah denies going soft on Naveen Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: On day two of his Odisha visit, BJP president Amit Shah was hard pressed to explain why the party wasn't attacking Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal like it did to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

Shah had evidently disappointed the state's media by not targeting Patnaik at a public rally that had been advertised as a 'Mahasangram` against the BJD's 'corrupt' government by his state colleagues. Instead, he reserved much of his criticism for Rahul Gandhi at Tuesday's rally.

At a press conference on Wednesday, he repeated several of the criticism by the BJP national leadership of Patnaik's 14 years in power, mostly Odisha's lack of development. When asked whether the party , as coalition partner in the state for two of Patnaik's four terms, should share responsibility, Shah avoided a direct answer. He, however, dismissed charges that the BJP may be going soft on Patnaik because it needed the regional party's support in the upper house.

`Seven members don't give us a majority (in RS). We still have to call joint sessions and in that case the BJP and the NDA doesn't need any outside support,` said Shah. He claimed the BJP would come to power in Odisha by 2019, and the party's state units campaign against Patnaik's government had the central leadership's endorsement.

Shah, credited with the party's recent victories in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, said discussions on a possible coalition in Jammu and Kashmir was still underway and no final decision has been taken. He also dismissed BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj's recent declaration that every Hindu woman should give birth to at least 4 children, and those involved in cow slaughter be given a death sentence as the MP's personal opinion.

The BJP has 10 MLA's in Odisha's 147 member assembly and managed to win just one of the state's 21 parliamentary seats. While the party has gained share and raised a significant hue and cry against the alleged involvement of BJD leaders in `chitfund and land scam`, it may not have dented Patnaik's popularity.