Bhubaneswar: BJD's Satyabadi MLA Uma Ballav Samantaray in a sardonic remark termed former legislator Rama Ranjan Baliarsingh as a dead horse after the latter's resignation from the party.
"He lost in 2014 assembly elections and in three panchayat bypolls consecutively. The party has not expelled him but he left the party," said Samantaray adding, the party knows to gamble on a winning horse, it will not gamble on a dead horse.
The sitting MLA further said, "Naveen Patnaik is our leader and his decision is final. Party members should think about the positions they have been provided by the party in the past. But now when their self-interest is hurt they don’t think twice before criticising the party."
Samantaray's statement came four days after Baliarsingh resigned from primary membership of BJD alleging that party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has become a puppet in the hands of a Tamil IAS officer.
While resigning from BJD on January 11, Baliarsingh had said, “Earlier the CM was working as per the directive of late Pyari Mohan Mohapatra and now he is being guided by a Tamil IAS officer sitting on the third floor of the secretariat.”
He alleged Patnaik is not looking into party affairs for which many leaders have left BJD.
He had also expressed displeasure over inclusion of MLA Samantray in BJD.
Baliarsingh as a BJD candidate had lost to Samantray, who was contesting as an independent candidate from Satyabadi constituency, in the 2014 Assembly polls.