BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik's decision to extend support to NDA presidential candidate Ramnath Kovind has come into question within the ruling party with senior leader and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahatab raising the issue today.
Mahatab, in a signed article today in the Odia daily owned and edited by him, has questioned the decision of the chief minister to extend support to Kovind. He is the second MP after Tathagat Satpathy who has raised the issue. An editorial on June 20 in the local daily owned and edited by Satpathy had also questioned the decision and had maintained that it is likely to weaken BJD as BJP is the main rival of the ruling party in Odisha.
Mahatab in his article said a question is being asked now as to why BJD which has adopted the policy of equidistance between BJP and Congress announced support for the NDA presidential candidate. "Why BJD, which has adopted the policy to maintain equidistance between BJP and Congress for the last three years, has extended support to NDA presidential candidate Kovind," Mahatab wrote in his in his article.
The party MP wrote the decision of the chief minister to extend support the NDA presidential candidate after the only phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been questioned. "Why the chief minister announced the party's support for Kovind after only one phone call from the Prime Minister," he asked.
Mahatab said, "It has been asked why Naveen Babu could not wait till the announcement of UPA presidential candidate." The party MP, who has been in the news for questioning different decisions of the chief minister through his articles in his newspaper and statements, said "Do all questions have answers? It is good that many questions remain questions."
The party MP had earlier in a signed article had sparked off a controversy by pointing at the weaknesses of the ruling party’s strategies to counter a resurgent BJP in Odisha.
Mahatab is not the only MP who has criticised decisions of the chief minister. Besides Mahatab, party MP Baijayant Panda, in newspaper articles, had also questioned the manner in which the ruling party is being run.