RS deputy chairman poll: BJD backed NDA in a bid 'to stop CBI' from exposing party's misdeeds, says Odisha Congress

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Thursday accused Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of betraying the people by backing NDA candidate in the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election in a bid to stop the CBI from exposing ruling party’s “misdeeds”. “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 in a twitter post. The OPCC chief further claimed that the chief minister’s move gave 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. [caption id=“attachment_4050337” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] “The BJD has been betraying the people of Odisha for many years by making false claim about maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. But, its real character has now come to fore,” Niranjan said. 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 alleged. On the other hand, the chief minister 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 Patnaik 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, he alleged. BJD, however, justified its decision saying there were ideological similarities between the party and JD(U) of which the elected NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh belongs. “Our party has decided to support Singh since JD(U) and BJD have similar ideological backgrounds. Both the parties have emerged from the Jaiprakash Narayan movement against the Emergency imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi in mid 1970s,” BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.