BHUBANESWAR: Politics centering around suspended BJD MP Baijayant Panda continued with former president of Kendrapara minority cell of the party Salim Khan alleging that a former minister and a bureaucrat are conspiring against the Lok Sabha member and it was at their behest that his close aide Debashis Mallik quit and levelled allegations against the Parliamentarian.
Khan’s media conference came two days after Baijayant’s close aide of 10 years addressed mediapersons and levelled serious charges against his former boss. Khan said there was also an attempt to lure him into conspiracy against the MP. “I continued to talk with the conspirators to know the conspiracy against the MP,” Khan said and added that he was threatened to join them.
Stating that there was threat to himself and his family members, Khan demanded security and urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take cognisance of the conspiracy against Panda in BJD. The Chief Minister should save the party from the conspirators, he said and added that conspiracy against the MP was also a part of this. Khan released a 25 minute audio tape of telephonic conversation with Debashis Mallick, who recently parted ways with the MP. Dismissing the allegations, BJD leader and former minister Pranab Prakash Das said, “We were expecting some big expose.”
The MP said in a tweet, “Sad to see that a former colleague has sold himself to the devil. Contrast that with Salim Khan, who resisted big threats and inducements from the coterie that now runs BJD and demonstrated immense courage in sticking to principle and not participating in the conspiracy against me.”