The political climate in Odisha is heating up with the ruling BJD and Opposition BJP gearing up for a showdown.

While the BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Thursday called upon party functionaries to work hard to throw out the BJD government, the BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked his partymen to redouble efforts to protect the interests of the people of the state.

Addressing a party “karyakarta” meeting, Nadda said Odisha needed a double-engine government to see real growth in the coming days and accused the Naveen Patnaik government of being immersed in corruption. However, during his long speech he refrained from attacking Naveen personally, questioning only the style of functioning of his government.

Nadda tried to present a rosy picture of development initiated by the BJP-led NDA government at the national level and said his party was a national party with regional aspirations. He said while in many states dynasty-based parties were ruling the state, Odisha was being ruled by a one-man party.

As if to steal the saffron party’s thunder, the BJD organised a mammoth meeting of its party functionaries to prepare the road map for its mass contact programme from October 2. The party maintained that the BJD would continue to be the number one party in the state in the future as well.

Naveen, in a message, said: “Our party is with the people and will always work for the people.” He asked the party functionaries to take the various welfare schemes of the state government to the people. He asked the party functionaries to ensure that the one-month-long Jana Sampark Yatra becomes successful.

Nadda tried to raise the morale of the BJP cadres who have been feeling down because of the public perception that the BJP had a tacit understanding with the BJD and it is not seriously fighting to dislodge the Naveen government from power.

Nadda sharpened his attack on the BJD and said: “It’s time to uproot this government because of which 50 lakh people in the state are being denied Ayushman Bharat Yojana benefits. Here fake bills are being generated for MGNREGS. The central schemes need a double-engine government.”

“Uproot this type of duplicate government and bring the BJP to power,” he said, adding that how Modi government had given priority to Odisha by making Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman from the state, the President of the country.

On the other hand, the BJD leaders tried to send a message to the BJP camp that despite their repeated attempts they won’t be successful in dislodging the Naveen government in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

“Naveen Patnaik has made Odisha’s development his only goal and 4.5 crore people of the state trust him. Over the years, the BJD has not changed its motto,” said the party’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das.

“The chief minister has earned the love and trust of the people. It was number one earlier, it’s number one today and it would continue to be the number one party in coming days,” said minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak.