Odisha BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra stokes fresh controversy with remarks on Odia language, state anthem

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader and Sambalpur MLA Jayanarayan Mishra on Thursday stoked a fresh controversy by claiming that the Odia language has been influenced by Bengali and asserting Sambalpuri to be the original language of Odisha. “A sizable number of people in Odisha are communicating in Sambalpuri. Even the number is greater than the Odia speaking people. So, Sambalpuri is the original language of Odisha. The modern-day Odia language has been influenced by the Bengali language,” said Mishra. The Sambalpur legislator also expressed reservations on the recital of ‘Bande Utkal Janani’, the state anthem of Odisha. “Bande Utkal Janani song does not represent the entire Odisha. It only hails the Utkal region not the entire state. The state anthem should represent the entire Odisha including the undivided Sambalpur region, Balangir, Kalahandi and Athmallik area,” said Mishra, a former minister and Leader of Opposition in Odisha. It is worth mentioning here that last year, Mishra had stirred a controversy by describing that the integration of ‘Kosal’ region with Odisha as a historic blunder. “The people of Sambalpur should remember that Odisha as a separate state was formed due to the integration of Utkal, Kosal and Kalinga regions. Utkal region comprises only Cuttack, Puri and Balasore. It is not proper to hail only Utkal and forget Kosal and Kalinga regions,” the BJP leader had said in an event in Sambalpur on March 8, 2025. Mishra had then claimed that the people of Sambalpur and Kosal have been facing continuous exploitation due to the region’s integration with Odisha. “We have been exploited in every fields including mining, agriculture, forest and service. We have been denied our cultural rights. The integration of Kosal with Odisha is a historic blunder,” Mishra had stated.