Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik have come face to face over the budget.

Though both of them enjoy a good rapport, Patnaik’s statement on the state budget has not gone down well with the Majhi government.

Naveen had termed the budget as name changer and not a game changer and accused the government of changing the names of 45 schemes of the previous government. “They said they have presented a game-changing budget. Instead, they have presented only a name-changing budget. As much as 80 per cent of the schemes they have presented have already been presented by our government.”

Taking a swipe at Naveen, Majhi, on the other hand, said many projects introduced by the BJD regime failed to take off and ended even before implementation. “The leader of the Opposition should know who is the ‘name changer’ and who is the ‘game changer’. BJD failed to deliver despite remaining in power for 24 long years. It ran a ‘jumla government’ without any focus on good governance,” said Majhi.

Responding to Naveen’s allegation while participating in the budget discussion on Tuesday, Majhi said: “The people of the state have given the BJD a long time, but it failed to bring a change in the life of the common man. Therefore, the people of the state decided to bring about change after their hopes were shattered during the BJD’s ruling.”

Majhi, who holds the finance portfolio, maintained, “The budget is the people’s budget. It reflects the people’s hopes and aspirations.”

He said the budget also focused on Odia Asmita (Odia Pride) and would attempt to fulfil all its promises mentioned in the election manifesto. He also said his government aims to build “Viksit Odisha” by 2036, when the state will observe its centenary of statehood formation.

The Majhi government presented a ₹2.65 lakh crore budget for the 2024-25 fiscal in the Assembly on July 25. The size of the budget is 15 per cent more compared to the 2023-24 budget whose size was ₹2.30 lakh crore.

BJD RS MP quits

BJD Rajya Sabha member Mamata Mohanta on Wednesday resigned from the Upper House. She also resigned from the primary membership of the BJD. Mamata, who hails from Mayurbhanj, was elected to Rajya Sabha in April 2020.