A host of civil society groups have urged political leaders of national repute to turn down the invitation of Cooperation and Excise Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) vice president Dr Damodar Rout to birth centenary of Biju Patnaik at Paradip on March 5.

In a letter addressed to Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Rashtriya Janata Dal president lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal ( United ) president Sarad Yadav, the members of civil society groups have said that Dr Rout has invited them to the event to garner support for Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik and strengthen his bargaining power with the Centre.

They said that the Patnaik Government has been entangled in a number of scams and to avoid CBI probe into them, there has been a rigorous effort by the BJD to bargain with the Centre.

“Patnaik as a part of his image building exercise has set Dr Rout to invite you to join in the celebration of birth centenary of Biju Patnaik. His sole motive behind all this is to show off to the public that that he enjoys close rapport with the leaders of different political parties at national level. Thereby he too aims at acquiring a stronger position in his bargain with BJP and hopes that the BJP led Central Government would also be cautious enough in taking any step towards destabilisation of the BJD Government from power,” the letter said.

Besides, the civil society members said that the programme is being organised under the banner of Biju Memorial Trust, which has triggered a political storm in the BJD.

The appeal was made by Pradip Pradhan, State Convener Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan, Sachikant  Pradhan of Rastriya Yuva  Sangathan, Pratap  Sahu, convener, Odisha Basti Surakhya Manch, Sanjukta Panigrahi of  Nari Surakhya Manch, Menaka Kinnar of Kinnar Surakhya Manch, Bijay Parida, convener, Odisha Jana Adhikar Parishad, Soumya Ranjan Pradhan of Open Hand Organisation, Srikant Pakal of OSAA and lawyers Srinivas Mohanty and Sudhir Mohanty of Orissa High Court.