Bhubaneswar. 22 Jan. 2019: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has exuded confidence that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) will show extremely good results in the upcoming assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections.

Patnaik’s assertion came at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has targeted the state as a mission by focusing on the eastern region.

The election schedules are most probably to be announced in March and the state will go to polls in April. Much before the D-Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it amply clear that BJP has set Odisha as a target for the upcoming polls.

The PM is trying his best to ensure that the saffron party hits the jackpot and wrest a good number of Lok Sabha as well as state assembly seats from BJD. Modi has been touring the state in the past two months obviously for getting electoral gains for his party. This has become a prestige issue for the saffron party, observers maintained.

Despite the tall talks by the BJP and its leaders, Patnaik seems to be little worried about the machination by the party. He brushes aside the claims of the saffron party leaders that they will take on BJD effectively this time.

The national general secretary Bhupinder Yadav who had paid a visit to the state just a day before has virtually dared the BJD supremo by saying that BJP will form the government in the state single handedly.

Suresh Pujari, the national secretary of BJP, has also said that Mission 120 will be a reality in the state. Pujari has asserted that his party will bag all the forty state assembly seats in Western Odisha at the hustings.

Patnaik has now made a game plan to counter Modi strategy of the saffron party. The BJD supremo has now decided to visit those places to which Prime Minister Modi has air dashed in the past two months. Modi has paid visits to Odisha thrice in the past two months.

Prime Minister Modi has landed in Jharsuguda on September 22 last year. Patnaik is scheduled to visit the place on January 24. Modi had earlier visited Bolangir on January 15, the BJD supremo will also visit Bolangir on January 24. Likewise, Modi had visited Baripada on January 5 and Patnaik will visit the place on January 30.