Congress-BJD tacit deal to keep BJP at bay: Jual Oram

BHUBANESWAR: Union minister Jual Oram here on Tuesday alleged a tacit understanding between the BJD and the Congress to keep BJP at bay.
Stating that BJD Rajya Sabha member Soumya Ranjan Patnaik acts as a bridge between his elder brother Niranjan Patnaik, who is the Congress state unit president, and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Jual said, “Naveen runs his government in PPP mode now: Patnaik-Patnaik Partnership.”
Soumya Ranjan, former chief minister and late Congress veteran J B Patnaik’s son-in-law, was nominated to the upper house by the BJD after he joined the regional party in March.Niranjan took over as Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president days later in April. “These developments are part of the same joint BJD-Congress game-plan,” Jual told a news conference.
Jual said the BJD has been taking Congress help ever since its alliance broke with the BJP in 2009 but in a clandestine manner. This time the two parties are more desperate seeing BJP’s rise, he said. In the by-election for Bijepur assembly segment in February, the Congress had smartly diverted its vote to BJD, the Union minister added.
Jual’s allegation was rejected outright by the rival political two parties and Soumya Ranjan.
Niranjan countered Jual, by saying that the BJP seems to have an underhand deal with the BJD. “While all non-BJP chief ministers are attending the swearing-in ceremony of the new government in Karnataka, Naveen has followed the path of BJP CMs. The BJP and BJD shared power in Odisha from 2000 to 2009,” he said.
Niranjan said after Karnataka results, the BJP foresees its defeat in 2019 and is coming out with absurd allegations.
BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said the Jual’s statements reflect the aftershock of Karnataka defeat of the saffron party.
The BJD has time and again reiterated its stand of being equi-distant from the BJP and the Congress. Conceding defeat in 2019, Jual is trying to look for excuses in advance, Patra said.
Stating that he can’t have a deal with the Congress, the party that sacked him without reasons, Soumya said, “Family relations can’t be cited as political togetherness.” He gave example of how he was with the BJP during JB Patnaik was at the helm of Congress.