Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s ‘advanced age’ remark against Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, saying that Shah was actually “throwing a hint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi”. Chidambaram also asserted Amit Shah was willing to take the Prime Minister’s chair himself.
In an X post, the senior Congress leader said, “When Mr Amit Shah said that Mr Naveen Patnaik should retire because of “advanced age” (77 years), was he throwing a hint to Mr Narendra Modi (73 years, 7 months) — in case the BJP formed the government?” “It seems that Mr Amit Shah will be the happiest person if the BJP did not form the government and he, not Mr Modi, will sit as the Leader of the Opposition!” (sic), he added.
According to reports, Chidambaram’s post came after Shah’s Tuesday statement, where he said Naveen Patnaik, who is 77 years old, should retire due to his “advanced age and health issues”, and promised that the BJP will make a young Odia-speaking ‘bhumiputra’ the Chief Minister if the party is voted to power in the state. Amit Shah said, “Naveen Babu is not keeping well, as a result of which 1.5 lakh government vacancies are not being filled up. If we form the government, we will make appointments to these posts.”
Shah confidently said that the BJP-led NDA has already bagged 310 seats after the conclusion of five phases of Lok Sabha polls and will secure its 400 target in the next two phases.
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Shah also hit out at bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian, a close aide of Patnaik. Without taking his name, Shah said, “Tamil babu” is ruling the roost in Odisha, and people will vote for the BJP to free the state from “babu raj”.Amit Shah was addressing back-to-back election rallies in Odisha ahead of the third phase of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Odisha on May 25. Amit Shah said the ongoing polls are to make Narendra Modi the prime minister for the third term and restore Odisha’s glory, which has been “destroyed” by the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government.
Union minister Amit Shah said, “With the conclusion of five phases of polling, NDA has already won 310 seats. We will achieve our 400-plus seats target after the sixth and seventh phases,”
He further said, “Naveen Babu has made a Tamil officer ruler of the state. Oust the BJD government… we will give a young Odia-speaking chief minister… babus (officers) have looted the state of its minerals. I promise you these babus would be jailed after the BJP forms the government in Odisha,” Shah said.”If BJP is voted to power in Odisha, a ‘bhumiputra’ (son or daughter of the soil) will rule the land of ‘Utkala Bhumi’ and not a Tamil babu,”.
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