Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday flagged off the Jana Sampark Padayatra by targeting the BJP for changing the names of various programmes launched by his government.

He accused the BJP of coming to power by telling lies and asked the party workers to expose the government’s false promises and incompetence.

“Crores of people benefitted from the Biju Swastya Yojana. Now the government has changed its name. You can change the name, you can change the colour, but you cannot change the history,” Naveen said while launching the annual padayatra from Baragarh in Bhubaneswar, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. The padayatra in the first phase will continue till October 6 and in the second phase, it will start from October 21 and continue till October 30.

Soon after coming to power, the Mohan Charan Majhi government started changing the names of various schemes launched by the previous Naveen regime and rebranding them. It has renamed as many as 40 schemes launched by the previous government.

The major flagship programmes that were operational during the Naveen regime in Odisha and rebranded by the Majhi government are Biju Swastya Kalyan Yojana, the state’s health scheme, as Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana (named after respected social reformer Gopabandhu Das), Nabin Odisha as Viksit Gaon — Viksit Odisha, and Laccmi (location accessible multiple initiative) bus service to Mukhyamantri bus service and Make in Odisha Conclave to Utkal Invest Business Summit.

Stating that he would continue to serve the people whether in power or out of power, Naveen said: “People’s trust and love is the biggest asset for BJD. In 2024 election, the BJP might have formed a government but the BJD got more votes than the BJP. We will continue to serve people and our lakhs and lakhs of workers will carry forward our message to people and also expose the false promises and incompetence of the BJP government.”

Stating the BJP is skilled in telling lies, Naveen questioned whether the people were getting 300 free units of electricity as promised by them during the election. “The BJP had also promised to give ₹3,000 allowances and ₹50,000 to women. How many of you got? The lies are exposed. People can not rely on this BJP government. One can win the election by propagating lies but can not win the hearts of people, the other identity of the BJP is lying.”

Launching a broadside for its failure to maintain law and order, Naveen said, “The women are not safe even at police stations. The government employees are not safe at Raj Bhavan.”

Naveen also shared details about how his government had done well on all fronts, starting with good governance, women’s empowerment, education, economic stability, health, and various other fields.

However, the BJP hit back stating that Naveen resorted to speaking lies to remain in the limelight and Naveen Babu should be ashamed of making misleading statements.