BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with his close aide VK Pandian on Monday conducted marathon campaigns at different places in western Odisha, including his second seat Kantabanji in Balangir district. The Chief Minister addressed large gatherings at Bangomunda, Muribahal, Balangir and Bargarh throughout the day. Addressing the gatherings, Patnaik said the people have no need to pay electricity bills from July 2024. Hitting out Opposition BJP and Congress, Patnaik said, The Opposition is lying. BJP leaders are shedding crocodile tears. Vote for me and BJD candidates. Bless me. He spoke about his governments flagship schemes, including the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), Mission Shakti, Mamata Scheme, LAccMI bus services, Yuba O Scholarship scheme for students, school transformation under 5T, Kalia Yojana for farmers and Madhu Babu Pension Scheme, among others. The Chief Ministers posers like if the schemes are good or not and he and his party are good were met with thunderous applause from the audience. He urged people to vote for the BJD. Pandian said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Odisha after five years. He had visited the State in 2019 and now in 2024, hinting that the PM is visiting the State only during election time. The PM had promised to double paddy MSP. Is he doubling the paddy MSP? he asked. The Prime Minister is saying that the Ayushman Bharat scheme has not been implemented in Odisha. But you people will continue to get free health services under the States BSKY scheme, the BJD leader said. Targeting Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Pandian said Pradhan has disrespected the CM. He is fighting the elections climbing on the shoulders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He would lose his deposits, if he fights without the support and backing o Modi. We will win 90 per cent seats in the first phase election being held on May 13, claimed Pandian. Pandian claimed that Odisha is ahead of Gujarat in various parameters. He shared statistics, comparing various indices of Gujarat and Odisha with a comment, Look who wants to make Odisha number one.  The BJD leader said it is ironic that even after two-and-a-half decades of the BJP rule in Gujarat, the situation there as compared to Odisha is quite dismal. In terms of malnutrition (children under five years who are underweight), he said, the rate is 30 per cent in Odisha whereas it is 40 per cent in Gujarat.  Pandian cited the National Health Family Survey data to say that the prevalence of anaemia among women is 65 per cent in Odisha while it is 69 per cent in Gujarat. Whereas 64 per cent of children in Odisha are anaemic, the percentage is 80 in Gujarat. He said Odisha fared much better than Gujarat in terms of immunisation with 90 per cent of children having been vaccinated compared to only 76.3 per cent in Gujarat.  In terms of vaccination, while Odisha has seen more than 90 per cent of its population vaccinated, in Gujarat it is in a very pitiable state of record of 76.3 per cent, it stated. In terms of bank account penetration for women in both States, the document mentioned that Odisha has over 86 per cent of women who have a bank account while in Gujarat, only 70 per cent of women have a bank account.    

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