Naveen calls voters on telephone, seeks votes

The cellphone rang. As Chandana, an undergraduate engineering student, picked up, she was startled.

"Agyan namaskar, mu Naveen Patnaik kahuchhi (Namaskar, I am Naveen Patnaik speaking)", the voice, quite recognisable, said at the other end.

These words are reaching out to people through telephones, both landline and mobile, across the nook and corner of Orissa as the state goes to polls in two phases on April 16 and 23.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, also president of the ruling BJD, speaks in chaste Oriya surprising the receiver as such innovative campaigning is said to be first of its kind in the state's electoral history.

"This is part of BJD's hi-tech campaigning", said a senior party leader adding people were happy listening to Patnaik's plea for votes on telephone.

The message is aired through voice recorder from a Delhi telephone number, BJD sources said.

To start with, Patnaik seeks blessings and cooperation of the receiver so that the BJD could serve the state for another five years.

"BJD has served the people for last nine years", Patnaik says adding he wanted another term in order to press forward with the schemes and programmes launched hy his government.

It is a pleasant surprise for many, who get the calls, to listen to the chief minister's voice, though recorded.

"I am lucky to have received the call", said Kashinath, a taxi driver.

Sampa, a student from Bhubaneswar, who was in Kolkata to appear at an interview, was surprised to get the chief minister's call. "It came as a very pleasant surprise", she said.