BHUBANESWAR : The voting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha has snowballed into a major crisis in the BJD with the leader of the party in Upper House Sasmit Patra in the firing line over allegedly bringing in the ‘conscience factor’ into play and himself publicly favouring the legislation.
While several senior leaders of the regional outfit on Saturday wrote to BJD president Naveen Patnaik demanding action against Sasmit for going against the party stand, MP Debasish Samantray, who abstained from voting, said his colleague was not at fault as he was just following instructions. “Sasmit Patra is not the villain here. He only carries out instructions, the real power lies elsewhere,” Samantray said.
Samantaray said even a day before the voting on Thursday, the MPs were told that the party will oppose the Bill. Participating in the discussion Munna (Muzibulla) Khan also announced in the Rajya Sabha BJD’s decision to oppose the Bill which had the sanction of the party president.
“After Khan’s speech in the House, there was the post from Patra’s handle allowing the MPs to go for conscience vote,” he said, adding that this decision is beyond him, he said.
Former minister Badri Narayan Patra also said that Sasmit is not empowered to take such a decision.