BJD must come clean soon when CM is targeted

That the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has taken quite seriously the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) charges against Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s about the sources of his election funding in his Hinjili constituency is evident from the ruling party holding  a Press conference to level similar allegations against senior BJP leader and Union Minister Jual Oram.

First, BJD spokespersons made reactions in a few sentences stating that the BJP was only indulging in spreading canards against the Chief Minister. When Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan questioned why Naveen Patnaik was silent, the latter also briefly reacted, terming the accusation as “malicious and baseless”. The BJD also threatened to take legal course of action against the BJP and a particular TV news channel if they did not refrain from repeating the charges against the CM. But an apparently aggressive BJP continued its campaign through news conferences and meeting all conceivable authorities in Odisha and New Delhi demanding action against Patnaik including his disqualification from the post MlA.

As if on the defensive, the BJD then chose its lok Sabha Member and legal luminary Pinaki Misra, known to be a Naveen confidante, to hold a media meet along with a party spokesman to rebut the BJP’s charges. Misra, explained bank accounts in the CM’s favour and demanded an apology from the BJP for its “baseless” allegations. But instead, the BJP did not stop from its tirade and this time met the Governor for the latter’s intervention in favour of its demand against the CM.

The BJD then wanted to do a tit-for-tat against the BJP and held a media conference again engaging Pinaki Misra and alleged that Jual Oram made a false affidavit about his election spending in the 2014 polls.

Oram has now come out with a hard-hitting reaction, demanding that Naveen Patnaik resign as the charges against him have been “proved in the preliminary inquiry”. He said he would also quit his MP post if a preliminary probe finds him guilty of the allegations the BJD has made against him.

Does the BJD really have the strength of its ‘evidence’ to disprove the scam of the election funding of the CMIJ Why has not the party filed a defamation case against the BJP as yet though it has been reiterating to do so since over a weekIJ The BJD shouldn’t dillydally on this when Naveen’s transparent image is at stake.

 Dharmendra resumes anti-BJD tirade; Damodar mum for long

Many were wondering why Dharmendra Pradhan and BJD loudmouth Damodar Rout have of late been silent in the media. In fact, what Pradhan says is taken as more noteworthy than anyone else in the BJP State unit as he is perceived as the party’s Chief Ministerial face. Except his brief statement more than a week ago that Naveen Patnaik must himself clarify on the election funding charge against him, Pradhan had not spoken anything on the State’s political issues. However, he more than compensated his silence this Sunday when he at a party meeting in Jajpur asserted that the BJP would unset the BJD Government in the next elections.

But Rout’s usual remarks, more comic than serious, on any subject under the sun are not available for quite a long time. It is really surprising why mediapersons, especially of TV channels, have developed cold feet in trying to quote, or take a ‘byte’, from the Minister. Has Rout come under big boss Naveen’s whipIJ