Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced more than a dozen sops in the past one year with an eye on the Assembly elections. He's announced everything from laptops, shoes and umbrellas to free mobile phones for over 15,000 farmers.
With laptops, mobiles, shoes, umbrellas, blankets, cycles and Re 1 per kg of rice, Patnaik is on a distribution spree in Odisha. Since the aborted coup by his former political advisor Pyari Mohan Mahapatra, a paranoid Patnaik is leaving nothing to chance. To attract voters, he has announced sops for almost every section of the society. On Tuesday, 20,000 farmers were given free mobile phones.
75-year-old Sudhir Majhi is one such beneficiary. The tribal farmer came all the way from the Mayurbhanj district to collect his free mobile. He said he already has one mobile, this one, he said will go to his grandchildren. "Since the government is providing free, I have come to take the mobile. But this will not influence my vote."
In the past 6 months, the Naveen Patnaik government has given the following sops: ...
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The meeting coming just days after RSS brokered a fragile truce between an aggrieved Advani and the pro-Modi group within the BJP. ...
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