Bhubaneswar: Hitting back at Odisha minister Suresh Pujari for his remarks that the BJD would be extinct very soon, the Opposition party alleged the ruling outfit was riddled with internal conflicts and the Naveen Patnaik-led party would get a thumping majority if polls were held now.
Pujari had earlier said that the BJD does not have any ideology and therefore would be extinct very soon, as he referred to former Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray resigning from the party and joining the BJP.
Samantaray has been nominated by the BJP for the Rajya Sabha by-election in Odisha.
Hitting back, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said, “That the BJP faces a leadership crisis is evident from the fact that the saffron party lured Samantary and inducted him into the party.”
“It is altogether a separate matter that a leader joins another party. But, Pujari should not speak about the ideology,” he said.
Mohanty said, “The BJP has been carrying its ‘washing machine’ across the country and now speaks about ideology. Pujari had reportedly stated that BJD, a party without ideology, would eventually merge or cease to exist. We ask where this concern for ideology was when Debashish Samantaray, while in BJD, was one of the strongest critics of the BJP.”
The BJD spokesperson said that a recent survey has suggested a sweeping victory for the BJD if polls were held now.
“Fear and instability have pushed the BJP into panic mode. Increasing leadership crises and internal conflicts within the BJP have led the party to attempt to lure leaders from other political parties. The latest example of this is Debashish Samantaray,” he said.
Mohanty alleged that in the past two years of BJP rule in Odisha, misgovernance and corruption have increased. “People are now expressing their desire to see former chief minister Naveen Patnaik return to power.”
“A recent survey indicates that if elections were held today, the BJD would win more than 80 of the 147 seats in the Odisha Assembly while the BJP would suffer a massive defeat,” the BJD spokesperson said.
He said people of Odisha would give a befitting reply to the BJP in the Panchayat elections early next year.
PTI