Bhubaneswar: Slamming the move of BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Thursday alleged Naveen backed NDA candidate in the poll in a bid to stop the CBI from exposing ruling party’s ‘misdeeds’.
“Naveen is betraying the people of Odisha for many years by making false claim of maintaining equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress. But, the real character of Naveen has now come to fore. BJD supporting the NDA candidate for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman election isn’t surprising at all, that’s what allies are supposed to do. It’s a deal to stop CBI from exposing the BJD’s misdeeds,” OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik alleged.
Patnaik further claimed that the chief minister’s move gives credence to talks about understanding between the BJP and the BJD. “This strengthens the ongoing rumours of seat sharing discussions between the BJP and the BJD,” he said in a statement.
Naveen Patnaik has all along been misleading the 4.35 crore people of Odisha by accusing the previous UPA regime and BJP-led NDA government of neglecting the state, he stated.
This is not the first time, the CM cleverly backed the BJP on most issues such as demonetisation, introduction of GST, presidential election and holding of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls, the Congress leader said.
“Now Naveen has proved himself to be loyal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by announcing BJD’s support to the NDA candidate in the election to the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman after getting a telephone call,” he said.
By changing colours like a chameleon, the BJD chief has always been sacrificing the interest of the state to protect his narrow interests, alleged Patnaik.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram also slammed the ruling BJD for supporting the NDA candidate. “BJD is shooting itself in the foot by voting for the NDA candidate when NDA has declared its goal is to defeat Naveen Patnaik’s party! The margin was only 20 votes. If the BJD had acted as a true Opposition party, the result would have been different,” tweeted Chidambaram.
BJD, however, justified its decision saying there were ideological similarities between the party and JD(U) to which the elected NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh belongs.
“Our party has decided to support Singh since JD (U) and BJD have similar ideological background. Both the parties have emerged from the Jaiprkash Narayan movement against the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in mid 1970s, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.
The Congress candidate BK Hariprasad was AICC in charge of Odisha till recently and was vitriolic in his statements against the state government, the BJD leader argued.
Meanwhile, Naveen congratulated Harivansh Narayan Singh for winning the election.
“A socialist leader from the same village as legendary Jayaprakash Narayan and former newspaper editor and author, I am sure he will discharge his duties according to the highest parliamentary tradition,” said Naveen.
Thanking BJD for its support, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan ruled out chances of a BJD-BJP alliance and said BJP would contest elections in Odisha on its own strength.