In the past, due to faulty economic policies like freight equalisation, resource-rich states like Odisha have suffered from the discriminatory policies of the Centre.

Sometimes the energy of the crowd also catches on to you.

Vajpayeeji's time was a time of mutual respect and understanding, irrespective of how small or big a party you are. In fact, Vajpayeeji's handling of a coalition is something of a benchmark in world politics.

Democracy should not work on the basis of personalities.

I can tolerate anything but corruption and nepotism.

The Union government can do a lot more for poor states like Orissa.

What I want is peaceful industrialisation.

Dynastic rule is when you are groomed to succeed. My father never groomed me to take over.

The love and affection of the people of Odisha continues to inspire me every day.

To empower the women in rural areas, we have started something called Mission Shakti.

I was never in politics before I contested the Lok Sabha by-elections after my father's death.

One should do what is good for the country.

I had no great love for the trappings of power.

I really don't think of power. I think more of service to the people of my state.

The government of Odisha believes in constructive cooperation with the Centre.

In Odisha, we have concentrated on people and their development. We hope to take Odisha to new heights.

Vajpayee had a much bigger stature than Mr Modi. He knew how to run a coalition government very successfully.

Modi doesn't seem to be interested in Odisha. I certainly feel that.

My interest as a regional party is to support, or try and support, whichever party fulfils the aspirations of Odisha.

We prefer to be isolated in Odisha. That is a policy of equidistance, and going it alone has served us well in the past.

We are a regional party, and our interests are for the people of Odisha.

As far as natural calamities are concerned, Odisha had a very bad reputation before 2000 when we took over the government. After that, we have achieved international standards as far as controlling the effects of natural calamities. In fact, even the United Nations have complimented us on this.

I do think a healthy opposition is very necessary in a democracy.

When I took over in 2000, Odisha was in a terrible financial state due to various policies, some of them unpopular.