Naveen plays youth card at BCJD rally in Odisha capital

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 20:

Calling upon the youth and students to play a much bigger role in the making of Odisha, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Chief Naveen Patnaik today said his government had put in place a ‘progressive youth policy’ to facilitate their greater particpation in the affairs of the state.

Inaugurating the state level students’ convention organised by Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD) at the Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Sabha Ground here today. the BJD supremo urged them to spread the word around about the good work that his government had done for the people.

“It is your dedication and determination that has made the BJD the most successful regional party in the history of the state,” Patnaik said in his broken, twisted Odia read out from a Roman script to rupturous cheers from the assembled students.

Patnaik launched an Android app on the occasion in a bid to woo the youth.

More than 20, 000 students attended the convention which was also telecast live on the party’s refurbished website www.bjdodisha.org.in in a first of its kind effort in the State.

All this while, the party’s social media cell announced the “New revamped version of BJD’s website is live now,” and “CM Naveen Patnaik launches the Official BJD Mobile App, which is available for Download from the Google Play Store now,” on Facebook and Twitter.

The high profile convention of BCJD was a show of strength after it claimed to have won over 95% of college elections in the recently held polls. The enthusiasm was high among the crowd. While a section of girl students were seen dancing and prancing around, the boys went hoarse screaming ‘BJD Zindabad’ ‘Naveen Patnaik Zindabad’.

The loud cheers reverberated across the city roads as students trooped into the venue on hired buses and cars and on foot this morning.

Such was the energy and decibel level that the CM himself was stumped a few times during his speech. On one occasion, there was loud applause when he paused during his speech and glanced at the crowd with a quizzical look on his face. On another, there was loud chanting of ‘BJD Zindabad’ ‘Naveen Patnaik Zindabad’ while he was speaking, making him stop and look at the crowd a bit confused.

The loudest cheer of course was drawn when the CM wished the audience ‘Happy New Year’, which turned out to be the only line he uttered in the meeting without reading from the script.

Among other senior leaders present in the event were Baijayant Panda, Anubhav Mohanty, Anang Uday Singhdeo, Usha Devi, Sanjay Dasburma, Raseswari Panigrahy, Akash Das Nayak, Pranab Balabantray, Pramilla Mallick etc.