Union minister Jual Oram alleges ‘paid smear campaign’ within BJP against him
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram alleged on Friday, August 28, that a section within the BJP was running a paid smear campaign against him in Sundargarh, aimed at getting him dropped from the Union Cabinet, and issued a stark warning to those behind it.
Speaking to reporters at the party office, Oram, without naming anyone, said leaders who had recently joined the BJP from other parties were spending money to defame him in the hope of grabbing his Cabinet berth once he was removed. He said he had given his "blood and sweat" to build the party in Odisha and was satisfied with the position and respect it had given him over the years, but condemned the attempts against him. He warned that anyone trying to damage his reputation would have their hands "cut off and thrown away."
Oram said he had already raised the matter with BJP general secretary (organisation) Manas Mohanty, and would escalate it to the party's central leadership if it wasn't resolved at the state level.
The minister also reversed an earlier stance that he wouldn't contest elections again. "I challenge those working against me to face me politically. You will see what will be their condition," he said, adding he would "finish" those trying to destabilise him.
Oram's outburst came a day after Rourkela police arrested his representative Prakash Paswan, who had booked rooms at the Circuit House for seven people who were later arrested with arms and ammunition. Oram had earlier called for a fair, impartial probe into the incident on social media. Odisha BJP has not responded to his conspiracy allegations.
A six-time MP from Sundargarh since 1998, Oram has lost the seat only once, in 2009, to Congress's Hemananda Biswal. He first headed the tribal affairs ministry under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 and was reinducted into the Cabinet under Narendra Modi in 2014 and again in 2024. Born to a tribal family in Sundargarh's Kendudihi village, he trained as an electrical engineer and worked at BHEL before entering politics, winning his first assembly seat in 1989.
