Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal vice-president and agriculture minister Damodar Rout Monday kicked up a controversy stating that the party, if needed, may join hands with Congress, to keep ‘‘communal forces’’ at bay in the state.
The BJD leader’s comments created a flutter in political circles here as his suggestion could be misconstrued, given the party’s known stand of equidistance from both the saffron outfit and Congress.
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Responding to reporters on the ongoing tussle between BJP and BJD over ‘political Nabakalebara’ Rout, who is known to shoot off his mouth quite often, said, “BJD may go in for a truck with Congress to keep off ‘‘communal parties like BJP’’. But, the party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will take the final call on the issue.”
Reiterating that BJD has an ideological rift with the saffron outfit, Rout said, “If secular parties, including Congress, join us we may welcome them.”
Further, Rout said it is time for anti-communal outfits to come together under one umbrella to take on communal forces. Rout went a step further, advising the Congress to submit a list of Assembly segments where they have winning prospects in the 2019 General and Assembly elections. Controversial as it was, the veteran BJD leader had recently criticised the Chief Minister’s meeting with Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan over issues pertaining to IOCL.
“Naveen Patnaik is the Chief Minister of Orissa and he (Pradhan) is just a minister of state in the Union Cabinet. As per protocol, the Chief Minister could have summoned Pradhan for a discussion to meet him in New Delhi,” Rout had said. Rout’s remarks have triggered speculation in political circles of a possible tie-up with Congress with some BJD spokespersons refusing to elaborate on his comment or take it forward, thus making the party’s stand unclear.
