With the tug of war continuing over the Centre’s Special Assistance to Odisha, the BJP has asked why the BJD did not nominate one of its senior MPs as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament.
The question was asked by Union Oil and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan while responding to the media over the reduction in Odisha’s share in the 14th Finance Commission and denial of Special Assistance to the State as given to West Bengal and Bihar.
“We proposed to make BJD MP Bhartuhari Mahtab as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance. However, the BJD did not recommend the name. Was it in the interest of the State,” Pradhan asked.
Pradhan claimed that the internal fight within the BJD was the reason behind the party not naming Mahtab for the prestigious post. Pradhan, at the same time, claimed that the Centre has increased allocations to all States including Odisha.
The differences within the Parliamentary Party of the BJD have come to the fore with Chief Minister and party supremo Naveen Patnaik saying, “No, not at all.”
Sources in the BJD said the BJD Parliamentary Party faced the problem of plenty. The party has many senior members like Mahtab, Pinaki Misra, Tathagata Satpathy, Arjun Sethi, Prasanna Patsani and Baijayant Panda.
All the senior MPs, though loyal to Naveen Patnaik, do not tolerate one another, party insiders said, adding that this is the reason as why the BJD failed to nominate any name for the top post in the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament.
Baijaynt Panda, who is having good relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union Ministers, is not tolerated by many others including Pinaki Misra, Mahtab and Satpathy. Naveen Patnaik is facing a tough job in maintaining a balance in the BJD Parliamentary Party.
Similar is the case in Rajya Sabha. Of the 10 seats for Odisha in the Upper House, the BJD has senior leaders like Kalpataru Das, AU Singh Deo and Bhupinder Singh.
When Das was defamed over the land scam in the State, the party named hockey star Dilip Tirkey as its Rajya Sabha leader.