BJD Sambalpur MP Nagendra Pradhan on Monday slammed his party leader and Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty for the latter’s Sunday controversial statement that even Mahatma Gandhi would be defeated if he happened to contest an election without spending money.
Pradhan said such a statement is never expected from a person occupying the position of a Minister. Any plea that the observation was made in a personal capacity is not acceptable, he added.
Mohanty had made the statement while speaking at a seminar organised by law students in Puri. He said this in response to the allegation of Congress leader and leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Narasingha Mishra at the seminar that an amount of Rs5,000 was spent for every voter by political parties, meaning the BJP and the
BJD, in the recent Bijepur by-election.