Samikhsya Bureau
Odisha assembly on Wednesday witnessed uproarious scenes by the Congress members over BJD’s support to BJP candidate Ashwini Vishanav for Rajya Sabha by polls, forcing speaker S.N. Patro to adjourn the house four times.
Raising the issue during the zero hour Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra said Vaishanav’s name figured in the list of discretionary allotment of plot scam. Mishra said the government has instituted the Taradatt Committee to inquire into illegal plot allotment to some influential persons like politicians, bureaucrats and journalists. The committee has listed 1,759 illegal allotments and the name of the BJP candidate Ashwini Vaishnav figured in the list.
This apart, Vaishnav was also hand in glove with many mining mafias and involved in many mining scams, Mishra alleged.
During the last five years, the National Democratic Alliance government did not hand over the scam to CBI for inquiry, he said. He added that it was now clear why the NDA government did not agree for a CBI inquiry in to the mining scam in Odisha.
Mishra urged the speaker to direct the chief minister and BJD, a regional party as to why did they support a non-Odia candidate for the Rajya Sabha who had looted the mines of the state.
Three MPs will go to Rajya Sabha after being elected in the by-poll to be held on July 5. Apart from Vaishnav, the other two are BJD’s Amar Patnaik and Sashmit Patra. The seats were vacated by the BJD’s Pratap Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who were elected to the assembly and Achyuta Samanta, who was elected to Lok Sabha.
On June 21, chief minister Naveen Patnaik sprang a surprise by announcing that the BJD would support the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Vaishnav for the third Rajya Sabha seat. “The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and home minister (Amit Shah) spoke to me. We will support the candidature of Ashwini Vaishnav,” Patnaik told news persons.
The BJD could have easily sent a third party man as it had the required number of MLAs. On the other hand, with only 23 MLAs, the BJP nominee could not have won.
The BJD’s support to the BJP candidate pointed at a new bonhomie between the two parties, who fought bitterly in the 2019 general elections. Political observers also speculated about the role of mining lobby in getting the two parties closer considering Vaishnav’s reported association with Triveni Earth Movers, a big player in Odisha’s mining scene.
