Bhubaneswar: Launching a scathing attack on state Congress president and his arch rival Niranjan Patnaik, senior BJD leader and School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra Saturday said he (Niranjan) became the PCC president to break the Congress.
Patra made this statement while replying to a media query on resignation of two senior leaders – Naba Kishore Das and Jogesh Singh from the Congress.
“I have been making it amply clear that Niranjan babu has become the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president to break the Congress party. Everybody knows about his diminishing attraction towards Congress after he became the PCC president,” Patra said.
Quotes:
Niranjan harbours the anguish with the Congress party for a long time as he had failed to get the president’s post. He was able to get the post after intense lobbying and has the intention to break the party
BN Patra BJD leader
Your contributions to the state apart from these ridiculous statements are the following staggering numbers: 30,714 posts of both primary and secondary school teachers are lying vacant across Odisha. Only 32 per cent of the primary schools in Odisha have electricity connection
Niranjan Patnaik PCC president
Stating his brothers have left him first, the Minister said, “How can you expect that others will stay in the party?”
“Niranjan harbours the anguish with the Congress party for a long time as he had failed to get the president’s post. He was able to get the post after intense lobbying and has the intention to break the party. The Congress party will break down here during his regime only,” the BJD leader alleged.
The PCC president also strongly reacted to his bête noire Patra’s statements in a series of tweets.
“Please don’t worry about the Congress party. You should be worried about the answers the people of Odisha will demand how you have been destroying the future of Odisha remorselessly and of course how your son Debasis Patra has been breaking people quite literally.”
Alleging that Patra has single-handedly destroyed the education system in the state, Niranjan said, “Your contributions to the state apart from these ridiculous statements are the following staggering numbers: 30,714 posts of both primary and secondary school teachers are lying vacant across Odisha. Only 32 per cent of the primary schools in Odisha have electricity connection.”
PNN