ROURKELA (Odisha), Feb 7: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the BJP and BJD of having a “partnership” in Odisha, and stated that his party has been opposing them to protect the interest of the people, including rights of tribals of the state.
Gandhi resumed his ‘Bharat Joda Nyay Yatra’ in Odisha’s steel city here.
While delivering speeches here, Rajgangpur and Sundergarh, Gandhi said: “As you know (BJD chief) Naveen Patnaik and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi run a partnership government in Odisha. They have joined hands and work in tandem. I find in Parliament that BJD supports the BJP. The BJD people also harass us at the instance of BJP”.
Gandhi claimed that it is the Congress party alone which has been opposing the BJD-BJP combine for the people of Odisha.
The Congress MP said this was also the situation in Telangana where Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) was supporting BJP and getting protection from the Centre.
“We have defeated BRS in Telangana and are optimistic to repeat the show in Odisha,” he said.
Both BJP and BJD rejected the former Congress president’s charges.
“It is actually the Congress which has been supporting the BJD in Odisha. We have seen Congress leaders coming to the rescue of the BJD government in the Assembly,” BJP MLA Nauri Naik said.
BJD vice-president and MLA Debi Prasad Mishra said: “Rahul Gandhi is free to say whatever he thinks, but the fact remains different. In Odisha, people have trust in Naveen Patnaik for which he has been successively elected to power five times in a row.” Gandhi claimed that during interaction with him in tribal majority Sundergarh district, people told him that an attempt is being made to steal the land of tribals through a survey using drones, which needs to be stopped.
Alleging that the survey is being made to provide land to industrialist Adani. (PTI)
