Badri-Niranjan Spat Hots Up

Bhubaneswar: With the Assembly elections in Odisha round the corner, the war of words between BJD leader Badri Narayan Patra and his arch-rival and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik has reached a new high.

Briefing the media here on Saturday, Patra said Niranjan has been appointed as the OPCC president to dismantle the Congress. 

“The people of Odisha know the plight of the Congress since the day he took over the party leadership. When his brother Soumya Ranjan has resigned from the Congress, why should his followers remain in the party? He was waiting for an opportunity to avenge his brother’s exit for which he was trying his best to take the party leadership. It is bad luck for the Congress that he has been appointed. Now, you will see an exodus,” Patra pointed out.

Dismissing Niranjan’s statement, Patra said, “I don’t know why he is so desperate? Isn’t he aware that I was not the OPCC president when my brother resigned from the party? Which source told him that we were behind the defeat of the Congress? Let him have patience, time will tell everything,” he maintained.