Wake-up and reconnect with people: Naveen Patnaik to BJD MLAs

Bhubaneswar: Ruling BJD president Naveen Patnaik today asked party MLAs not to be disheartened by the trends emerging from the Odisha Panchayat elections and take it as a wake-up call.

"You should not be disheartened by the reverse. I advise you to take this signal seriously as a wake-up call and get reconnected to the people and workers at the grassroots level," Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, told BJD MLAs while addressing the party's Legislature Party meeting ahead of the Assembly's budget session.

According to the trends available so far for the Panchayat polls, the ruling BJD might lose about 200 Zilla Parishad seats, while the opposition BJP could secure about 300 Zilla Parishad zones. Polling was held for 848 ZP seats.

BJD had secured 654 ZP seats in the 2012 Panchayat elections, while the BJP had just 36 seats.

"Make sure that all government welfare and development activities/programmes reach the people properly, effectively and efficiently," Patnaik said.

The BJD president, however, said his party has returned as the number one party in the state after the polls.

"Opposition parties are way behind the BJD. So the underlying message is, people do not want a change. They want you to perform even better in the areas where you have not met their expectations," Patnaik said.

Humility and simplicity are required in thought and action when dealing with people, he said adding "I hope you will never let down the belief and faith that the people of Odisha have in us."

Claiming that the trends indicate most of the Sarpanch, Panchayat Samiti and Ward Member candidates who had faith in BJD have won in large numbers, Patnaik said he was satisfied over the performance in some districts.

"But, I am seriously concerned at the poor performance of the party in certain districts in the Panchayat polls. I am not very happy with some MLAs who could not perform well. There may be certain specific reasons for their failure, which needs to be seriously introspected," he said.