BHUBANESWAR: After BJD and Congress, senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra has criticised his party's decision to rope in Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to campaign for party candidates during the panchayat polls in the State.
Chief ministers should not campaign in panchayat polls, that too from neighbouring States, Mohapatra said reacting to the BJP's decision to include the names of Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand Raman Singh and Raghubar Das respectively in the list of star campaigners of the party.
The senior leader's reaction came a day after BJD, Congress and Samajwadi Party announced that Raman Singh will be opposed if he addressed public meetings during poll campaigning. "The CMs should not be involved in campaigning for the panchayat polls. Nobody will stop him (Raman Singh) from delivering speeches, but in rural polls, the CMs should not come into picture," he said.
The BJP has included Singh and Das in the list of party's star campaigners to counter Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. Sources in the BJD said Naveen will launch his campaign after the scrutiny of candidates is over.
The senior BJP leader also advised political parties to refrain from politics of vendetta. He said the CBI and Vigilance should stop investigation during the poll process. Mohapatra was referring to CBI crackdown on the residence of BJD leaders and Vigilance raid on the gas agency of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's brother at Handidhua in Angul district.