Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya seems to be in trouble for his controversial speech during the campaigning for the recent elections to the urban local bodies in western Odisha, his home turf.
Not satisfied with the explanation given by Acharya, who is also a vice-president of the ruling BJD, over his controversial statement at a public meeting in Bargarh on November 17, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday sent him a CD copy of the video recording of his speech and asked him to respond to the charges of violation of poll model code of conduct afresh.
The SEC also sent a CD copy of Acharya’s speech to the Collector of Bargarh district, who had given a clean chit to the Minister saying the charges brought against the latter were without any basis.
In fact, Acharya is yet to give a direct reply to a direct question. He has been accused of threatening the people of Bargarh town to vote for the BJD or he, as the Finance Minister, would stop release of funds for the area’s development.
He was quoted as saying that funds would not be available to the town if people voted for the Congress instead of the BJD.
The issue is under consideration of the SEC as a petition in this regard has been filed before it. Though the allegation was made about 10 days ago, Acharya remained tightlipped for the media, . Interestingly, two senior Ministers, Damodar Rout and Surjya Narayan Patro, came forward and defended Acharya.
The long silence of Acharya created an impression that he is unable to defend himself in the public. He first took time for replying to the notice of the SEC before finally responding to it on Sunday claiming that the charge against him is not true. But the SEC has now again put the ball in his court to come clean.
Sources said Acharya has not directly said “No” to the allegation. The sources in the SEC said Achrya has said that whatever he had told it was at a workers’ conference and not at a public meeting. However he has not mentioned what he had said at the party meeting.