Bhubaneswar: Slamming the ruling BJD for supporting the NDA candidate in the recent Rajya Sabha election for the post of deputy chairman, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma Monday alleged there has been match-fixing between the BJD and the BJP.
Addressing a press conference here, Sharma said, “There is a match-fixing between BJD and BJP for which the BJD is supporting every wrong decision of the Modi government. The RS deputy chairman election is a blatant example of it.”
“In the RS deputy chairman poll, almost all opposition parties had united. But, the BJD departed from its line, which played a major role in helping the NDA candidate win,” Sharma said.
Since the BJP will not get the required number of seats at the Centre to form the government and there is no chance of increasing its tally in the eastern states including Odisha in the 2019 polls, the BJP will seek the support of the BJD if new political equations arise to form the government at the Centre, he claimed.
“If there is no deal, than how did Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik agree with Modi over just a phone call”? he asked. The former Union minister also criticised the BJD president for not raising various issues of Odisha during his telephonic conversation with Modi.
There are a lot of issues including Mahanadi water dispute, setting up of super specialty hospital at Rourkela and construction of bridge over Bramhani river. “Why you (Naveen) have not raised these issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the latter made a phone call seeking the BJD’s support?” he asked. “If you (BJD) are secular, why are you supporting BJP and not raising issues like mob lynching. What is the reason for your support?” he further asked.
The Congress MP also alleged that institutions of the state were under assault under the BJP government at the Centre. Modi government is misusing central agencies including CBI, IT, ED, etc for its political gain. These agencies might be used against the Naveen Patnaik government and that’s why he readily agrees when he gets a phone call, he stated.
Javadekar confident of BJP winning
Berhampur: Confident of winning 2019 general elections and Odisha assembly poll, Union minister Prakash Javadekar Monday said that the party was working to strengthen its base in the state.
Javadekar, who is party-incharge in four Lok Sabha seats of the state, reviewed the organisational activities at the booth level in Berhampur parliamentary constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly polls. “We are reviewing the party’s activities at booth level of the Parliamentary constituency, assembly wise, discussing with the party functionaries in each segment, said Javadekar. He stated that the party will review the organisational activities in the next 15 days. On the first day, he held discussions with the party functionaries of Gopalpur, Chikiti, Mohana, Paralakhemundi and Berhampur assembly segments. He will meet the party functionaries of Chhatrapur and Digaphandi tomorrow, party sources said.