BJD to train 29,400 party activists in Odisha for public outreach ahead of elections

With Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections due next year, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has started a training programme on how to win elections for at least 200 activists from each of the 147 assembly segments.

The 37-day Master Trainer Programme began at the BJD headquarters in Bhubaneswar on Monday. “The master trainers will take the party's message to each household in the state. Development is our main agenda,” BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said.

“The people will be told how (chief minister) Naveen Patnaik has transformed Odisha from a poor state to a developing region,” said Mishra, convenor of the training programme. He said the state government's flagship programmes like Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) where women are given health assurance worth Rs 10 lakh will be highlighted.

On the first day, 200 workers each from Cuttack, Chowdwar, Hinjili, Jagatsinghpur and Bhanjanagar assembly constituencies were trained. A total of 29,400 workers will be trained over 37 days. Besides Mishra, other BJD leaders will train the party workers.

Also, experts from finance, industries and economics are roped in to sensitise the BJD workers on how a poor state procuring rice from other states for its survival transformed into a food grain surplus state. The trainees will tell the people how the transformations have taken place in different spheres starting from politics to economics and sports.

Mishra said when Patnaik took over the state after the super cyclone in 2000, Odisha was dependent on overdrafts to give salaries to its employees. He said the party workers were also being trained on the BJD vision for 2036 when Odisha will celebrate its centenary.

(With agency inputs)