BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party threatened to launch a state-wide agitation demanding that Biju Janata Dal disclose the source of its poll funding and explain discrepancies in expenditure, BJD president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday dismissed the charges as 'malicious, fabricated and false'.
Naveen, who returned after a five-day visit to New Delhi, warned, "If necessary, the party will take legal action over the issue."
Replying to questions, the chief minister said BJD is being targeted by rivals on account of its growing popularity.
The chief minister also pointed to the defeat of BJP candidate in Komna Zilla Parishad (ZP) polls in Nuapada district."Although the Komna zone falls in the assembly constituency of BJP state president Basant Panda, BJP candidate came third behind BJD and Congress, in the recently held ZP polls there," he said.
Several BJD leaders had said that it was BJP's drubbing in the Komna ZP election that is prompting its leaders to go after BJD's campaign fund sources.
It was only recently that BJP national president Amit Shah expressed his confidence that his party will win two-third of the seats in the Odisha Assembly in the 2019 elections and form a government.