The Congress hartal on January 7 demanding resignation and arrest of CM Naveen Patnaik for his alleged ‘complicity’ in the Rs 60,000 crore mining scam has got the support of the Odisha Maovadi Party (OMP).
OMP secretary Sabyasachi Panda alias Sunil in an audio message said Patnaik should quit immediately because he had lost the moral authority to continue as Chief Minister after the Shah Commission report on the Odisha mining scam ‘indicted’ his Government.
Panda criticised the Congress, BJP, left parties as well as regional parties like the BJD for taking crores of rupees from the big industrial houses in the name of election fund.
He accused the BJD of collecting huge amounts of black money from the mining and industrial companies and in return giving them a free hand to loot Odisha’s resources at the cost of the State and its people.
“Now it is clear that BJD has been using this black money to win elections and after elections,” Panda said in the audio message. Panda said in the larger interest of the State, all left and democratic forces should rise above narrow considerations and support the January 7 hartal to demand Naveen Patnaik ‘s resignation and his trial by the lokayukta as soon as it takes shape.