BHUBANESWAR: THE BJD’s support to NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman has drawn sharp criticism from the Congress which said the regional party’s true colours have been exposed.
“BJD’s real face has once again been revealed after it declared support to the NDA candidate for the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman election. BJD has been supporting BJP in all issues and they are one party,” president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee Niranjan Patnaik said.
Alleging that the BJD is misleading the people of Odisha, Patnaik said the BJD has all along been supporting BJP even though it talks about maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. Singh defeated RJD candidate Manoj Jha to be elected to the post on Monday.
BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the party’s support for the JD(U) candidate hours before the election was held on Monday after getting a call from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the morning.
Nitish had also called up Naveen on September 10 and requested him to support Singh, a JD(U) MP who had filed his nomination on Wednesday. BJD had issued a whip to its Rajya Sabha MPs on September 11 to remain present throughout the day on Monday stating that some important business will be taken up on September 14.
The BJD has nine out of the 10 Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha while BJP has one. The regional party had also supported Singh in 2018 for the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.