Odisha will dump BJD in Bay of Bengal in next election, says Dharmendra Pradhan

Pradhan accused the BJD of corruption and said it had mastered the manipulative skill of hijacking Central schemes.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday alleged that corruption was rampant in BJD-ruled Odisha and said voters would dump it in the Bay of Bengal in next elections.

Dharmendra Pradhan (AP)

“The BJD government is neck-deep in corruption and people are all set to dump the regional party in the Bay of Bengal as they have come to realise it,” the petroleum minister who joined a road-show and a BJP-sponsored ‘Mishrana Parva’ said in Kendrapara.

Ahead of the ‘Mishrana Parva’ meet, unknown people vandalised posters and hoardings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dhramendra Pradhan along the main road of this district headquarters town.

Referring to scandals like alleged mining scam and “manipulation” in NFSA cards, Pradhan said BJD had mastered the manipulative skill of hijacking Central schemes.

The ‘Mishrana Parva’ was marked by two former MLAs from Kendrapara district — Utkal Keshari Parida and Dolagobind Nayak — joining the BJP.

The event sparked a political storm with party bigwigs ignoring senior BJP leader Bijoy Mahapatra in his home turf despite the party’s impressive show in February panchayat polls.

“I was not consulted on the Kendrapara meeting. I was also not invited. So I decided to skip the event. My supporters also stayed away from the meeting,” he said.

“Bijoy babu worked hard to boost BJP in Kendrapara. But he is being shabbily treated by the party. BJP fought panchayat polls under his stewardship and performed well by winning ten zilla parshad seats while the tally was one in 2012 panchayat polls,” said a zilla parishad member Ganesh Chandra Samal.