Bhubaneswar: Former Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday targeted Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik over alleged personal remarks against him and the party’s bid to corner him over the NEET question paper leak issue.
Addressing a public programme in Redhakhol under his constituency, the Sambalpur MP said that through the blessings of Lord Jagannath and the people of Odisha, he had served as a Union Minister for 12 years without ever bringing disrepute to the state.
He asked the crowd whether he had ever done anything that would make Odias hang their heads in shame.
Targeting Patnaik in the presence of senior BJD leader Prasanna Acharya, Pradhan said, “The BJD supremo Naveen Babu is calling me a badmas (wicked). He has engaged two of my younger brothers and sisters who are saying ‘Dharmendra Pradhan Go Back’. If they want to become big leaders by opposing me, let them. I am a servant of Sambalpur; even if you ask me to go back, I will come.”
The former Union Minister alleged that the BJD president was calling him a disgrace to Odisha and asking him to go back.
“Dharmendra Pradhan has never made 4.5 crore Odias hang their heads in shame. I have the blessings of Lord Jagannath and Maa Samaleshwari. As long as I am alive, whether I do good work for Odisha or not, I will never cause any harm to the state’s honour,” he said.
It may be recalled that former Chief Minister Patnaik had earlier demanded Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET paper leak issue and directed BJD MPs to corner the ruling BJP in Parliament.
Patnaik also recently used Pradhan’s exit as a precedent to demand the resignation of Odisha’s state Education Minister over textbook errors.
Meanwhile, reacting to Pradhan’s allegations, BJD leader Rohit Pujari said on Saturday that nobody was trying to defame Dharmendra Pradhan, as he had brought disrepute upon himself.
He added that the BJP’s alleged police action against students at Jantar Mantar and the deaths of 21 students over the paper leak issue had brought disrepute to Pradhan.
IANS
