Make funding public: BJP to BJD

Bhubaneswar: A day after a report on alleged discrepancies in the BJD’s election expenditure data was aired by a national news channel, the Odisha state BJP unit on Saturday stepped up its attack against the ruling party here.

The saffron party demanded declassification of the Biju Janata Dal’s all financial transactions.

Demanding a high-level inquiry, the saffron party said it will knock the doors of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax department for a detailed investigation into such irregularities. “We will soon move the ED and I-T department to apprise them about such irregularities,” BJP state vice-president Sameer Mohanty said.

Dubbing the money transferred to the BJD as per cent given to the chief minister, the BJP leader asked the state government to refrain from misleading public in the name of vigilance raid to curb corruption. “When the CM receives per cent for giving political patronage, vigilance raid on certain schemes is only a drama to hide the CM’s own wrongdoings,” Mr Mohanty said.

“One Purna Padhi collected huge amounts from public and deposited in the BJD’s bank account. He is a peon, whose voice was recorded and aired on a national channel on Friday. The people of Odisha are eagerly waiting to know the identity of this gentleman,” the saffron leader pointed out.

“The BJD received money through another RTGS, in which chit-fund accused and BJD’s Mayurbhanj MP had transacted money earlier. Isn’t this the chit fund money?” he questioned.

Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati also demanded a CBI investigation into the entire financial transaction of the BJD.

The BJD rubbished the allegation as “baseless”. “The BJP is trying to defame the BJD. All allegations levelled against our party are grossly baseless. We have made all our transactions in a transparent manner,” BJD treasurer Subash Singh said. The discrepancies of the BJD’s poll expenditure came to fore after Times Now aired a report titled ‘#NaveenHawalaGhotala’.