BHUBANESWAR: Thewar of words between Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik and former Union Minister Srikant Jena intensified on Saturday with the former describing the latter as an expert story teller. Patnaik was responding to Jena’s allegations that he has mining business. In a letter to All India Congress Committee (AICC) Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh, released to the press on Friday, Jena had asked him whether he disagreed that all illegal mining operators need to be dealt with severely and their ill-gotten wealth should be confiscated and utilised for the welfare of people of Odisha.
The OPCC president, however, dismissed Jena’s allegations. “Srikant Babu is a senior leader, but he is used to telling such stories,” Patnaik said and added that there was a time when he told many things against former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik. Reacting to his allegation that there is no transparency in Congress, Patnaik said he will come to know about the transparency in the party in the coming days.
The former Union Minister reiterated the issue raised by him about mining mafia and asked Patnaik to clarify whether he had mining business. “But one needs regular practice to tell stories. I have nothing to say if he wants to push all issues under the carpet by describing them as stories,” he said and wanted to know the reason behind the State Government not making public the names of the mining mafia.
Coming to the defence of his party president, Opposition chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati said Congress is gaining strength and getting united under the leadership of Patnaik. Jena is coming in the way which is detrimental to the interest of Congress in Odisha, Bahinipati added.
“Srikant is talking about Dalits and backward communities. He was the Union Minister for five years during the tenure of UPA government. Had he put pressure on the government, several Dalits could have been employed. He is a man of wily character for whom Biju Patnaik could not become the Prime Minister. He is an opportunist leader who will be taken to task by the Congress president Rahul Gandhi,” Bahinipati told mediapersons here.
Congress high command had removed Jena as the chairman of manifesto committee of Odisha unit and appointed a much junior leader Ganeswar Behera, a former minister and OPCC vice-president, in his place on December 6.