Vedanta money used in Bijepur bypoll: Congress’ Srikant Jena

Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena today alleged that money of Vedanta Company has been spent in the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly constituency.

“When everyone’s attention was on Bijepur, government made a policy change to favour Anil Agrawal by ensuing Bauxite supply to Vedanta. Hundreds of crores have been spent by BJP and BJD in Bijepur. We didn't know that we are contesting with Vedanta," Jena said.

He claimed that the State will lose Rs 3,000 revenue per tonne of Bauxite if Odisha government provides ore to the company. It means that the State would incur Rs 10,000 crore loss in 10 years, he added.

“Does CM Naveen Patnaik belong to Odisha or Vedanta,” Jena asked while demanding rollback of the Cabinet decision to provide mines to the company.

BJD spokesperson Amar Satpathy, on the other hand clarified that the State government has done everything according to industrial policy. "It is just a ploy of the Congress to save its face in case of a defeat in the just-concluded bypoll", Satpathy added.