BHUBANESWAR: A day after BJD president Naveen Patnaik disowned Pravat Tripathy saying he had been expelled from the party years back, the former Banki MLA on Thursday accused the party chief of resorting to complete falsehood to divert the Waqf Bill voting controversy.
Addressing a media conference here, Tripathy said the remark of the former chief minister about his expulsion from BJD was a lie. Tripathy said he had extensively campaigned for the party in the 2019 and 2024 elections and Naveen was also present at a public meeting attended by him before the 2019 election in Banki Assembly constituency.
The former government chief whip said he was active in party organisation and attended many meetings of the BJD in Cuttack district after the Covid pandemic. Tripathy said the then “number 2” in the party VK Pandian had praised him in an election meeting in Banki constituency during last year’s election campaign for the role he played in saving the BJD from the coup attempt in 2012.
“He (Naveen) lied on my suspension. The party revoked action against me in 2017. I did not request the party to revoke my suspension, but he revoked it after which I extensively campaigned for BJD during the 2019 and 2024 elections,” he said.
Continuing to target Pandian over the Waqf Bill fiasco, Tripathy said, “If this person has withdrawn from active politics and is not involved in any party activities for the past 10 months, then why is the needle of suspicion over the split voting pointing towards him?”
Giving a clean chit to his trusted aide, the BJD president on Wednesday said Tripathy was expelled from the party some years ago because he was indicted in a chit-fund case and spent some years in jail. Tripathy also countered Naveen’s statement stating that the case relating to the chit-fund scam is pending in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said Tripathy is not a member of the party now as he did not renew his membership. He showed a video clip at the media conference where Tripathy had admitted of not doing so.
Mohanty said Tripathy was not suspended from the party for the first time in 2014 over his alleged involvement in the chitfund scam. He was also earlier suspended from the party in 1998 in connection with cross voting during Rajya Sabha elections.