Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Speaker of the Odisha Assembly Rama Chandra Panda on Monday rubbished a news item appeared in an Odia daily on Sunday predicting the probability of his resignation from the party.
Panda along with other party leaders of Ganjam district strongly condemned the news and described it as a game of a mischievous person who is unable to digest his growing popularity in the party and wanted to tarnish his image in the district and the party.
Panda said he has built the party in the district during last two decades and hence, there is no question of departing the party. “I was in this party; I am in this party and I will continue to remain in this party to make the party more strengthened and progressive in the district,” he added.
Reacting to this news, BJP leader and former Ganjam block chairman Surath Pahan said the news was created by some people with vested interests. “The news item is mischievous, hollow, imaginary, manufactured and appears to be ‘staged news’,” he added.
He demanded an internal investigation be initiated into the matter to know who issued the false and confusing news to media on whose order. It is designed to destabilise the party in the district, he alleged.
Among others, party’s Ganjam district president BK Swain and general secretary Sunil Kumar Sahu described the news as baseless and doctored piece.
Reliable sources said some key party functionaries of the district met in the afternoon to find out the mastermind of this episode.