Bhubaneswar: The political scenario is warming up in the state with the BJP taking out every weapon in its armory to try and upstage the BJD, and the ruling party giving back to the saffron side in the same coin. Saturday, the BJD demanded that Union minister Jual Oram quit the government and his election be disqualified by the Election Commission, as he had filed a “false” affidavit in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
For the BJD, it is time to zealously protect its turf and territory; and for the BJP, it’s time to build the tempo for the next assembly polls in year 2019. Predictably, the fight is at multiple levels. Both sides are hard at work, as is evident from the developments throughout this past week. The two sides are pulling out all the stops in their fight against each other, and agencies like the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate and the Election Commission have been approached in multi-pronged offensives — either to get justice or gain political mileage.
Things began heating up after the BJP had a loss of face in the Nuapada Zilla Parishad bypoll, where the ruling party mauled the saffron side badly in what shockingly was the state party chief’s base. BJP’s hot-air balloons claiming a massive surge in its popularity in the state got punctured – and miserably too. BJP, however, brushed it aside as a minor jerk and girded up its loins for a fresh offensive.
In its aftermath, this week saw a BJP delegation meeting the Election Commission in Delhi to cite alleged irregularities in the election process for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Hinjili constituency in 2014. The allegation was that a “false” poll affidavit had been filed. Notably, this came close on the heels of an electronic media offensive against the CM which cited alleged irregularities in the poll funding of the CM and the BJD, also providing a “havala” angle to it.
Taking matters to a head Saturday, a state BJP delegation met Governor SC Jamir and submitted to him a memorandum seeking his intervention in the case of “discrepancies” in poll expenses of the CM and the BJD. The delegation was led by the state BJP vice-president Sameer Mohanty. “The CM is misusing his powers. A case is under trial in a court against Naveen Patnaik relating to poll fund irregularities. Instead of appointing a lawyer from his own side, the CM is misusing his powers by employing government lawyers to plead his case in the high court, for which much public money is being spent,” Mohanty alleged.
“The Ganjam collector has filed a miscellaneous case on his behalf without prior permission from the ECI as he was the district returning officer for the election,” the BJP leader said.
BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb told the media: “There was no justification in going to the governor with a memorandum. The allegations are baseless. I reiterate that the BJP is engaged in a political conspiracy against the BJD. An issue may be false or true, but they are resorting to a strategy of ‘mahol banao, mahol banake rakho’ (creating a hostile political environment and maintaining it)”.
The BJD held a media meet Saturday evening and raised the allegation against Jual Oram, saying he filed a false affidavit with the poll panel. “In one form (Schedule-7) on election expenditure submitted to the ECI, Oram had stated that his personal investment in the election was ‘Nil’ while in another form (Schedule-9) he said he had spent `3,59,000 for the election,” Deb said. The party has circulated copies of the forms submitted by the BJP leader to the ECI.
Biswabhushan Mohapatra/ Prem Chandran, OP
