Bhubaneswar: Once bitten, twice shy! Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a foot in mouth moment during a public speech in Odisha, his party colleague and Puri MP nominee Sambit Patra had a re-run leading to memefest.

Soon after a roadshow by the Prime Minister in Puri today, the BJP Lok Sabha candidate during a media byte said, "Lakhs of people gathered at Puri to have a glimpse of Prime Minister Modi. Lord Jagannath is Modi's devotee. We all are the Parivaar (family members) of Modi. Today is a special day for the people of Odisha.”

This led to severe backlash and memefest alike on social media platforms.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik too denounced the statement made by the saffron party leader.

Naveen took to micro-blogging site 'x' where he wrote, “Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannatha is the Lord of Universe. Calling Mahaprabhu a bhakt of another human being is an insult to the Lord. This has hurt the sentiments and demeaned the faith of crores of Jagannatha bhaktas and Odias across the world. The Lord is the greatest Symbol of Odia Asmita. Calling Mahaprabhu a bhakt of another human being is totally condemnable. I strongly denounce the statement made by the BJP Puri Lok Sabha candidate and I appeal to the BJP to keep the Lord above any political discourse. By this you have deeply hurt Odia Asmita and this will be remembered and condemned by people of Odisha for a very long time.”

Many social media users have reacted to the post.

“BJP is gone from Odisha now. Done & Dusted…RIP BJP,” wrote one social media user.

While sharing a meme, another social media user wrote, “Shame on BJP…”

Patra, later, issued a clarification saying it was a slip of tongue.

“Naveen Ji Namaskar! I gave number of bytes today to multiple media channels after the massive success of Shri Narendra Modiji’s Road Show in Puri today, everywhere I mentioned that Modi ji is an ardent “Bhakt” of Shri Jagannath Mahaprabhu ..by mistake during one of the bytes I pronounced just the opposite ..I know you too know and understand this ..Sir let’s not make an issue out of a nonexistent issue ..we all have “slip of tongue sometimes”.. Thanks and Pranam!” said Patra in a Twitter (X) post while replying to the criticism by the Odisha Chief Minister.

Addressing poll rally in Odisha, the Prime Minister had said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik can’t remember the 30 districts of the state and their capitals.

The Prime Minister wrongly uttered ‘district capitals’ in the place of ‘district headquarters’.