Bhubaneswar: Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram on Tuesday said the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the Congress are getting closer to counter the BJP in the ensuing Assembly election in Odisha.
“The manner in which the Congress has managed to keep the BJP out of power after an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) to form the government in Karnataka, it is now trying to keep the saffron party out of power in Odisha in the ensuing Assembly elections for which it has a tactical understanding with the BJD,” Oram told media persons here.
Justifying his statement, he said the activity of the Congress in the recent past is a clear indication of its tacit understanding with the BJD.
“When we withdrew our support to the BJD in the State Assembly in 2009 forcing the BJD to prove its majority in the floor of the House, it was the Congress who had bailed out the regional party. Instead of urging the governor to declare president’s rule in Odisha, it had allowed the Naveen Patnaik and his party to contest the Assembly elections,” the Union minister said.
Referring to the recent bypoll in Bijepur, Oram said the Congress had surrendered its votes to the BJD to ensure that the BJP will not be able to win the election.
He further said the former Congress leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who has joined the BJD, will work as an agent between the BJD and the Congress. “You know Soumya Ranjan and his relation with the PCC president,” Oram hinted.
He further said the BJD, which is aware of the growing popularity the BJP in Odisha for its developmental activities in Odisha like the LPG distribution, implementation of Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Saubhagya scheme for household electrification, it will try its best to keep saffron party at bay for which there is every possibility of its understanding with the Congress.
Reacting to the statement of Oram, the PCC president said it was the BJP who had remained in power for nine years in the state after an alliance with the BJD.
“Oram is trying to mislead the people of Odisha by giving such preposterous and unfounded statements to the media as the BJP is apprehensive of its performance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he pointed out.
Rebutting the allegation of the Union minister on the tacit understanding of the Congress with the BJD, Patnaik said if this is the case, then why chief minister Naveen Patnaik has not gone to Karnataka when all the non-BJP chief ministers are scheduled to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new government tomorrow. “It shows that it is the BJP, not the Congress, which has a clandestine deal with the BJD,” he maintained.
In his reaction, BJD Rajya Sabha member Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said Oram should refrain himself from giving statements on his relationship with the PCC president. “Niranjan Patnaik is my brother and I have no enmity with him. I had left the Congress which insulted me and suspended me from the party,” he added.
“People living in glass houses should not throw stones at others houses,”, he said while reminding the BJP leader of the relationship between BJP leader KV Singhdeo and his brother and BJD leader AU Singhdeo.
