Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari Thursday dismissed talks of a possible no-confidence motion against the state’s BJP government and claimed that it will boomerang and hit the Opposition while leaving the ruling party unscathed.
Pujari made the remark a day after the state Congress chief, Bhakta Charan Das, called upon the state’s principal Opposition party, the BJD, to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP government over crimes against women.
He said the BJD should move the no-confidence motion in the upcoming Assembly session if the regional party is serious about fighting for the rights of women.
Announcing Congress’s support to the BJD in this regard, Das said, “If the BJD does not bring such a motion, the Congress is ready to make a move, but it should get the regional party’s support.”
Responding to Das’s remark, Pujari, a former BJP state president, said, “We are ready to face any no-confidence motion brought by the Opposition. But they (BJD and Congress) must be equally ready to listen to our response. They ruled the state for decades, during which numerous heinous crimes against women occurred. They must answer for the wrongdoings of over 70 years. We have completed just one year in office.”
The minister asserted that the BJP government would emerge “unscathed” while the Opposition would be “seriously injured.”
Senior BJD leader and former leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh, said he was optimistic that a no-confidence motion would be brought in the upcoming Assembly session.
“However, BJD president Naveen Patnaik will take the final call,” he said, adding that a non-confidence motion will put huge pressure on the state’s BJP government.
BJD senior vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra also said Wednesday that Patnaik will take a final decision on the proposed no-confidence motion.
“The government is yet to notify the dates for the upcoming monsoon session,” Mishra said.
Political observers said even if a no-confidence motion is brought in the Assembly, it will be “symbolic” as the ruling BJP has a comfortable majority of 81 MLAs (BJP’s 78 and 3 Independents) against the Opposition’s combined 66 (BJD 51, Congress’s 14 and CPI(M)-one). The Odisha Assembly has 147 members.
PTI
