Bhubaneswar: Rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Lord Jagannath’s chariots in Puri were halted for industrialist Gautam Adani, the Odisha government Friday said such comments are “inconsequential and illogical”.
Odisha’s Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said that Adani visited the pilgrim town June 28, a day after the chariots were halted during the Rath Yatra festival.
Addressing the party’s ‘Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh’ in Bhubaneswar, Gandhi alleged that Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra in Puri was also halted for “Adani and his family”, and it indicated the influence of the industrialist on the Odisha government.
Responding to the allegation, the minister said, “Adani, as a devotee, came to Puri a day after the Rath Yatra. Usually, Lord Jagannath’s chariots reach their destination (the Gundicha temple) on the second day of chariot pulling.”
What Rahul Gandhi claimed about Adani was also alleged by the BJD, Harichandan said.
“By making such statements, the politicians prove their foolishness,” the law minister said.
The Jagannath temple in Puri functions under the law department of the Odisha government.
Adani and his family members visited Puri June 28 and paid their obeisance to Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath, by standing in front of their chariots near Shree Gundicha Temple.
The law minister attributed the delay on the first day of the Rath Yatra to overcrowding and uncontrolled pulling of Lord Balabhadra’s chariot.
“It was difficult to control Lord Balabhadra’s chariot, which had veered off course in the midway. The devotees pulled the chariot in different directions, and it took almost an hour to bring the chariots to line,” the minister said.
Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said, “None can stop chariots in Puri unless Lord Jagannath himself desires so.”
Samal also ridiculed AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s statement that Congress established AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
“Kharge ji might have lost memory due to his age. Then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was the founder of AIIMS Bhubaneswar,” Samal said.
According to the website of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Vajpayee laid its foundation stone on July 15, 2003. It was “established as an autonomous institution and institute of National importance through the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Amendment) Ordinance passed on 16th July, 2012”, when the Congress-led UPA was in power.
Samal claimed that the Congress has been rejected by the people of Odisha.
Odisha Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo also described the Congress’ rally as a “political theatre”.
“What unfolded in Bhubaneswar under the banner of the ‘Samvidhan Bachao Rally’, led by Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, was not a solemn defence of constitutional values—it was political theatre in its most familiar form,” he said in a post on X.
PTI
