Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik seems to be losing his grip over his party MPs. After two of the party’s senior lawmakers — Baijayant Jay Panda and Bhartruhari Mahatab — discussed in their newspaper articles party’s inte-rnal affairs, another legislator, Tathagat Satpathy, has caused serious embarrassment to the CM by saying that his party has many chors (thieves).
“The Congress, a leading national political party, has many thieves. So has the BJP, another leading national party. But, it does not mean that our regional party is better than them. We also have many thieves. Our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently dropped four of such thieves during the recent reshuffle in his council of ministers,” Mr Satpathy said while addressing a cultural function at Hindol under his Dhenkanal constituency on Wednesday evening.
The lawmaker even named former minister Debi Prasad Mishra as one of the four ‘chors’ (thieves) dropped by Mr Patnaik from his council of ministers. An aggrieved Debi Prasad on Thursday met Mr Patnaik and conveyed his anguish at the remark of Mr Satpathy. “The MP’s remark is not correct. It is seriously wrong. The dropped ministers were given important political assignme-nts,” the Chief Minister said, adding, he would seek an explanation from Mr Satpathy for his remark.
After meeting the Chief Minister, the Badamba-Narasinghpur MLA said he and Tathagat had never crossed each other’s boundary. “But Mr Satpathy’s rem-ark comes without any context,” Mr Mishra said. Earlier in the morning, before meeting the CM, Mr Mishra reacted to the ‘thief’ remark saying, “He is my friend. I am deeply hurt with his statements. The people of Badamba and Narasinghpur area were also deeply hurt. I don’t understand his inte-ntion to insult me in public.”
The ruling BJD took the matter seriously and decided to take it to party supremo. “What circumstances led him to give such statement will be examined. Chief Minister has given important party responsibility to those who were criticised by him,” party spokesperson Sameer Dash said.
