Bhubaneswar: A day after Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi alleged horse trading in which Rs one crore deal was struck to lure one of the party’s candidates to vote for BJD in the Sundergarh Zilla Parishad (ZP) chairman post, BJP levelled similar charges against the Congress and BJD, and demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
“We had fielded a woman candidate for the post of ZP chairman. However, Congress’ Hemanand Biswal and MLA Jogesh Singh didn’t support us. It seems like Prafulla Majhi was interested in offering his support to us. However, it looks like a secret internal deal was struck among them,” said union minister and senior BJP leader Jual Oram.
“We demand a CBI probe into this whole incident as such high profile persons are involved in it,” said BJP youth wing president, Tankadhar Tripathy.
The ruling party refuted the allegations.
“There is no question of horse trading as BJD had a majority. BJP’s claims are baseless,” said BJD MLA, Pravat Biswal.
Also Read: Cong MLA alleges horse trading after member defects in Sundergarh ZP chairman poll
Meanwhile, in a letter to the leader of the Opposition and senior party leader Narsingh Mishra, Majhi has termed the alliance between the BJD and Congress as unethical and unholy, and blamed the district Congress president for the same.
“Because it is an unholy alliance, I am against it. Though I had already spoken to the District Congress President to maintain equal distance from BJD and BJP, it was not done. Hence this letter will go to the Congress high command through the leader of Opposition,” stated Majhi.