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Bhubaneswar: Congress today alleged that the secret understanding between BJP and BJD was exposed by the speech of BJP chief Amit Shah at the recent rally here and it was done to protect leaders of the ruling party in the state from CBI probe in chitfund scam and ensure BJD support to NDA in Rajya Sabha.
"Amit Shah's speech at BJP's much hyped Mahasangram rally here showed there was a match fixing with ruling BJD in Odisha. Shah kept mum on rampant corruption and the series of scams that rocked the state," AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad told reporters here.
Dubbing BJP and BJD as two sides of the same coin, he said the 'Mahasangram" rally which was billed as a mega fight against Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha turned out to be "maha samarthan" as Shah kept silent on corruption and ponzi scheme scam in which poor investors were looted.
Hariprasad and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Prasad Harichandan claimed that Mahasangram led to an anti-climax and ended before it began, even leaving state BJP leaders highly disappointed as they had been spewing venom against Naveen rule over scams, corruption and misrule.
"Amit Shah's silence was due to a deal between the two political parties for protection and support. While BJD and Naveen wanted protection from CBI probe into chitfund scam, BJP sought support in Rajya Sabha," they claimed.
"One can clearly see that CBI investigation into chitfund scam had slowed down substantially during the last over one month ... investigators appear to be in deep slumber now," Harichandan said.
On Shah's claim that BJP does not need BJD support in Rajya Sabha as a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament can be held if necessary, the Congress leaders said the claim was just to hoodwink the people and asked "how many joint sittings would they call?"
Coming down heavily on both BJP and BJD, they termed Amit Shah's claim about containing inflation and cut in oil prices ten times as "misleading and hollow" and dubbed BJD rule in Odisha as a pathetic tale of corruption, scandals, scams, misrule and inefficiency.
Stating that the Centre had little role in fall in petrol and diesel prices, Harichandan said though global crude oil price dropped by about 55 per cent since BJP-led NDA came to power, petrol price had gone down by only 15.73 per cent and diesel prices by 11.3 per cent.
On the contrary, corporate giants who fly by their planes and helicopters benefited the most as the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) has been decreased by about 45 per cent as some big business houses are favoured by Narendra Modi government, the PCC chief alleged.
