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BJD to Launch a Social Services Wing on Naveen Patnaik’s Birthday, Oppn Terms it 'Vote-catching Ploy'

Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the regional party that has been in power in Odisha for the past 19 years, plans to start a social services wing on the occasion of party boss and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s birthday next week.
While a group of BJD leaders is busy putting together a framework for this new wing and quotes Patnaik as having said earlier that social work is his most favourite activity, the state’s Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress have slammed the proposed initiative calling it a “vote-catching ploy” that would further intensify corruption.
Patnaik, who was sworn in as the coastal state’s chief minister for a record fifth term in May, is turning 73 on October 16.
His ongoing term in office being widely considered his last, while the BJD and the government have been devising several innovative pro-people schemes apparently to ensure the party keeps winning elections for many more years.

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BJP and Congress leaders are already likening the ruling party’s proposed social services wing to the controversial Biju Yuva Bahini (meaning Biju Youth Brigade), a controversial social services scheme of the government that was launched under the sports and youth affairs department in April 2018.

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