Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday refrained from attacking chief minister Naveen Patnaik but vowed to turn Odisha into a BJP fortress. Political observers feel that Shah does not want to strike a discordant note at a time BJP and Naveen-led BJD appear to be coming closer. Shah spoke at length about Modi government’s contribution towards the development of Odisha and compared it with the preceding UPA government. Addressing the rally, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said people in more than 50,000 villages were listening to the speech of Amit Shah who had come to present the report card of Modi government. Senior BJP leaders, including Union minister Pratap Sarangi, were present at the rally.

Source: The Telegraph June 09, 2020 00:00 UTC