BHUBANESWAR: Coming down heavily on BJP for inducting and fielding a “known law-breaker” like Prasanta Kumar Jagadev as its candidate, BJD on Sunday said the saffron party should not talk about high morals and principles in politics.
Launching a scathing attack on BJP after Jagadev was arrested for vandalising EVM at a polling booth on Saturday, BJD national spokesperson Sasmit Patra said this has exposed the face of BJP which always talks about politics with a difference.
Patra said BJD had expelled Jagadev from the party after he ran over BJP workers near Balugaon in Khurda district during panchayat elections and had also assaulted the town president of the saffron party. But he was invited by the BJP to join its ranks and even fielded as a candidate, he said.
Patra said BJP also fielded Pradeep Panigrahy from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat despite the fact that he was convicted and served a jail term for cheating people by taking money from them to provide jobs. BJP leaders who served the party for years were ignored and Panigrahy was promoted in their place, he added. People of the state had rejected BJP in the last three elections and will do so in this election too because of the double standards of the party, he said.
BJD candidate from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat Bhrugu Baxipatra and spokesperson Priyabrata Majhi said several BJP leaders had demanded action against Panigrahy for his alleged involvement in the chit fund scam. Now he has been made the poster boy of BJP, he said.