BHUBANESWAR: Hours after the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) suspended Manmath Routray from the party on charges of gross violation of discipline, the younger son of senior leader and legislator Suresh Kumar Routray dismissed the order saying he was never a member of the grand old party.
Manmath said he worked as a pilot with Air India and had never applied for Congress membership. He told this paper that he is on a three-month notice after his resignation from the organisation which will be over by this month. “How can I join Congress before I am relieved from the job,” he asked.
He said Congress should have done his background check if they considered him as a potential candidate from Jatni. Reacting to claims that he was an OPCC member, he said the party should have verified it.
“Besides, I was never involved in any function of the party nor attended any of its events or programmes,” he said.
Manmath also questioned the show cause notice issued to him by the disciplinary action committee. “As I am not a member of the OPCC, serving a show cause notice and suspension order are both illegal,” he said. Routray’s son said he would talk to his father and ask how the Congress is being run. Its leadership is not even aware of who is in the party or not, he said.
However, the chairman of the state Congress disciplinary action committee Santosh Singh Saluja asserted that Manmath was a member of the OPCC. “He was the member of the OPCC from Jatni block while Suresh Routray represented Jatni municipality,” Saluja said.
Manmath was suspended from the party for announcing he would not contest Congress in the next Assembly election. He had said that he was independent and could visit the office of any political party BJD or BJP.