Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik heated up the political atmosphere in Odisha yet again on Saturday with his explosive statement that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thinks that all his Ministers are incapable for which he gets his work done by the 5T Secretary.
The Khanadapada MLA stated this while responding to Energy Minister Pratap Deb's swipe at him for continuously being critical of the 5T in his writings as well as earlier statements.
“Don’t we have any leaders to run the party? Only one or two IAS officers are there. If they have to do politics, they should resign from their jobs. Then nobody would oppose them. It is being said that the CMO has visited the districts. The Chief Minister's Office means only that single person who is taking care of the Chief Minister and the government works and hearing people’s grievances. Is not an affront to a political leader?” asked Patnaik.
Showing open disagreement to 5T Secretary's visits to various districts, Patnaik stated that VK Pandian can not involve in politics while being a secretary.
"I am openly saying that 5T Secretary cannot do politics while being a secretary. As per my sources, BJD workers at the grassroots level support my statement. However, if some people with a vested interest will run the party in the name of CM, it is not acceptable," the legislator said.
Training his gun at the Energy Minister, he said, “I have said ‘Aatmabibhor Prashasak and Asahaya Rajaneta’. Why they are not commenting on it? The Chief Minister knows that they are of no use. He has no confidence in them. That’s why things are being done by only one person. The Minister (Pratap Deb) can’t direct me whether I should be the Editor or in the party. As he belongs to a royal family, he treats others as his subjects. But I am not among those subjects. I want to tell him with due respect that I feel sorry seeing his helplessness.”
“The BJD is not anyone’s ancestral property. The Chief Minister is lucky that a large number of people support the party. Is it my sin to point out that the Chief Minister’s popularity is on the wane? I am not saying this. The survey conducted by India Today has said this. Is there any deliberation in our party as to why the popularity is diminishing? Is it anti-party activity to point out the party’s lacunae? If nodding head at everything is considered to be the job of a worker, then I am not that type of worker. I have never ever gone against the party,” he added.
“Are decisions not changed? If a decision is changed what is abnormality in changing a party? Doesn’t the half of the BJD party have come from other parties?” he asked further.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi came out in Patnaik’s support and said he is bringing out the truth.
“I shouldn’t give any statement on the ongoing infighting in the BJD party because that is their party matter. But as a common citizen, I would like to thank Soumya Ranjan Babu and say that if he is trying to bring out the truth, then every BJD MLA should accept it positively. He is speaking for them. If the party had listened to his words and put them into use, then the people of the state wouldn’t have ridiculed the party over the governance model.”