Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and the party’s spokesperson Surya Narayan Patro on Saturday came down heavily on his former colleague and expelled leader Damodar Rout for lambasting the party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Talking to mediapersons here, the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister said: “Why Dama did not probe into the scam in the Cooperative Bank when he was the Cooperation minister? When there was no investigation, why he did not resign from his portfolio? He did not resign as he wanted to hold on to his portfolio. Now that he has been expelled from the party, he has been raising the issues of corruption.”
Patro further said that though Dama has raised the issues of corruption, he is unable to give substantial evidence to justify his claim.
Commenting on the meeting between former BJD MP Baijayant Panda and Dama, he said the meeting will have no impact on the party. “No one can do any harm to the Naveen Patnaik government,” Patro averred.
To a question on how the party supremo could expel Dama without seeking an explanation from him, he said as the latter crossed the ‘Laxman Rekha’, he had no other option but to sack him from the party.
Commenting on the statement of the BJD leader, Dama said Patro can go to any extent on property matters. “He can become the private servant of the Chief Minister. Even he can change the name of his father. To grab government property, he had changed his son’s name to Biplab Patro and his name as Narayan Patro,” he added.
Referring to Patro’s statement on Laxman Rekha, Dama said “Had the minister ever seen the Laxman Rekha of the Chief Minister? “He knows very well whether I had ordered an investigation into the scam in the Cooperative Bank,” he pointed out.
