Damodar Rout vows to oust Naveen Patnaik from power

Bhubaneswar: Dr Damodar Rout, ex-colleague of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, on Friday dubbed the latter the most corrupt politician and vowed to oust him from power in the coming elections.

Dr Rout, who arrived here from New Delhi where he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday evening, said the state had witnessed rampant corruption and nepotism, and rising atrocities against women under the ruling BJD and hence it needed to be freed from the “clutches” of the party.

“While the people of Odisha struggling with myriad issues from farmer suicides, corruption, and insecurity of women to plight of tribals and ill-governance, the Naveen Patnaik-led government is busy spending crores of rupees for the party, its leaders and workers that has led to rise of the debt burden on the state close to Rs 1 lakh crore,” Mr Rout said.

The veteran politician who also served as a minister in the council of ministers of Biju Patnaik, father of the present CM, said the BJD had dumped its ideals and had become the party of a few corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

“The present BJD is no longer the same party when it was founded in 1997 to remove the Congress from power,” he said.

It is not only thoroughly corrupt, but also anti-women and quite inefficient to provide a clean governance," he said.

Citing examples of rising number of atrocities, Dr Rout said in many cases the victims who knocked the doors of police did not get justice. Instead, they were harassed.

He alleged that the 14-year-old girl student of Kunduli in Koraput district who was raped by a constable committed suicide when the police, instead of giving her justice, harassed her.