Youth leader Debi Prasad Prusti, who has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from the Bhubaneswar Central Assembly seat, on Sunday alleged that the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) hatched a ‘conspiracy’ along with the Chief Minister not to give him the election symbol ‘lion.’ Prusti alleged that though the Election Commission of India (ECI) had ordered the CEO to allot lion symbol to him on April 26 and while the same was uploaded in the ECI website, but the State electoral officers did not allot the symbol to him till April 29. “Only after I met CEO Mona Sharma, she complied with the ECI order and allotted me the symbol. The matter needs to be investigated,” said Prusti.
