Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD and opposition BJP Monday engaged in a war of words over gunshots fired at a BJP activist’s house in Padia village of poll-bound Bijepur in Bargarh district.
While the BJP accused BJD of indulging in pre-poll violence, the ruling dispensation hit back saying the saffron camp is hatching a conspiracy against it ahead of by-election in the Bijepur Assembly segment.
The firing incident took a political overtone when a delegation of BJP state unit led by its president Basant Panda and BJP legislature party chief KV Singh Deo met the state Home Secretary Asit Tripathy at the Secretariat here and submitted a memorandum.
Panda blamed BJD leader and Labour Minister Shusant Singh for the firing and said that the incident took place as per his instruction.
“The district administration and police have remained mute spectators to the incident. If such things happen in further, the ruling party and its leaders will be held responsible,” said BJP state president Panda.
He went on to say that BJD fears a loss in the by-poll in the wake of BJP’s surge in last year’s panchayat elections; so it has resorted to creating such disturbances.
The BJD leaders, however, took no time to hit back at the saffron camp and its leaders and accused them of ‘hatching a conspiracy’ against it ahead of the by-poll. Dubbing BJP’s allegation as ‘false and baseless’, BJD Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb said, “The issue is being completely politicized (by BJP leaders) and it’s their ploy to gain undue political advantage out of it.”
Deb, who rubbished the involvement of any BJD leader in the incident, rather alleged that “the incident is the outcome of BJP infighting. However, BJP is trying to shift the blame on BJD to hide its internal strife.”
Stating that law will take its own course, Deb said, “All are equal before law and whoever found guilty will be punished.”
Meanwhile, the BJP has also decided to stage demonstrations at district headquarters across the state over the issue Tuesday.
PNN
