Baijayant Panda slams Naveen Patnaik for linking him to mining

Bhubaneswar: BJP National vice president Baijayant Jay Panda on Thursday came down strongly on BJD president Naveen Patnaik for his remarks during declaration of the third phase candidate list including Kendrapara Lok Sabha segment here.

In what is being tagged by political analysts as a vindictive and vendetta-driven behaviour of the Odisha CM, Mr Patnaik's statement intended at Jay Panda, was strongly responded to by the senior BJP leader through twitter.

While announcing Anubhav Mohanty as the party's Kendrapara Lok Sabha candidate against Jay Panda, Naveen Patnaik had on Wednesday stated that Mohanty "will be only working for interests of the people of Kendrapara and he will have nothing to hide in his affidavit like the earlier one (Panda) working for a mining company."

Strongly responding to Naveen's comments, Mr Panda expressed shock stating that he never thought the CM would stoop so low.

The former parliamentarian in a tweet mentioned that at least Naveen should be aware of his (Jay Panda) family's 60-year-old industry with which late Biju Patnaik was very familiar and dependent, for decades.

"Didn't think Naveen wd stoop so low," Mr Panda tweeted. He said all people in the state knew about his family's 60-year-old old industry with which Naveen's father late Biju Patnaik was very familiar with, and dependent, for decades."

The BJP national vice president denied being involved in granting mining leases to companies.

"Also, I have never been involved in granting mining leases to companies one year before they were formed," mentioned Panda in his tweet, taking an indirect dig at the Odisha CM who is currently in soup for allegedly granting mining lease to ghost company during his stint as Union coal minister in 1998.

It may be noted here that an impleadment application was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking expedition of the CBI investigation in a coal block allocation case in which an inquiry was pending against Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Sources said Patnaik had allegedly shown undue favours by allocating 98 coal blocks to a Maharashtra based mining company during his stint as Union minister of steel and mines under the then NDA government.