Bishnu Das defies whip; rakes up party issues in media

Bhubaneswar: Despite the whip issued by chief minister and BJD supremo to his cabinet colleagues and party leaders to mind their own business and not to give media statements which affect the party's image, senior BJD leader and former minister Bishnu Das today suggested that Food minister Sanjay Dasburma should resign from the post on moral grounds over his alleged involvement chit-fund scam.

Making an indirect comment while replying to media queries, the Jagatsinghpur district BJD president said “I was also once trapped in a controversy when I was the school and mass education minister. It was the incident involving increase in my son’s marks in the HSC examination. Soon after the allegation, I had put in my paper on moral grounds.”

When asked whether Dasburma should follow suit, Das said' "It depends on him whether he will resign or not."
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Raising the issue of intra-party fight, he fired a fresh salvo on some leaders who have made comments that went against the party in the absence of BJD president Naveen Patnaik.

“When party president and CM was on an official Delhi tour, some leaders made comments against other party men in a most indisciplined way”, Das added.

However, he refused to accept that his own statement against party vice-president Damodar Rout and party legislator Rajashree Mallik amounted to indiscipline.

“He (Rout) is always giving remarks against me in the media. I just replied to him. My statement cannot be termed as an act of indiscipline”, Das pointed out.

Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had reportedly warned his ministerial colleagues soon after a cabinet meeting at the State Secretariat on Tuesday against giving media statements affecting BJD’s interests.