Breaking his brief but conspicuous spell of silence post his suspension from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), rebel leader Pyari Mohan Mohapatra took chief minister Naveen Patnaik head on, blaming him for killing intra party democracy.
Mohapatra alleged that the BJD is being run in an unconstitutional manner and Patnaik has lost the constitutional right to be its president as he has not convened the meeting of the party executive for last three years.
“There is no president of the BJD currently. He (Naveen) has lost the democratic right to lead the BJD from July 2010. The party workers are deprived of their rights. The party is running merely, but internally it is decaying”, Mohapatra said in his maiden press conference, weeks after floating his forum- Odisha Jan Morcha
(OJM).
Asked if he feared being expelled from the BJD for his diatribe against Naveen, Mohapatra said, “Any move to oust me or any of the OJM members would be unconstitutional. There is no disciplinary committee functioning in BJD. How can he (Naveen) expel me?”
Recounting the cause of his rift which chief minister, Mohapatra, who is a sitting Rajya Sabha MP and once wielded enormous influence in BJD for being a close confidante of Patnaik before falling out him, said seeds of difference were sown in January, 2010 when he sounded about rising incidence of corruption at the grass root level and subversion of political leadership by the bureaucratic domination in the administration at a party meeting.
Denying any personal tiff with chief minister, Mohapatra rubbished allegations that he used to handle the party's finances. “There was no financial deal ever with companies that signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the government. Besides, I never handled the party's finances – they were handled by him (Naveen) and his treasurer”, he added.
Besides, the Rajya Sabha MP denied that he had full control over appointment of ministers or policy decisions. “There were only some MLAs who were made ministers on my recommendations. And all administrative decisions were taken by the chief minister with the help of his officers”, he said.
Mohapatra also sought to steer clear of the allegations surrounding his nexus with mine owners and other deals smacking of corruption.
“On June 4 this year, I had told the media that let there be any probe into any corruption case against me. More than four months have elapsed now and nothing has been proved against me”, he clarified.
“You must ask the chief minister about the outcome of vigilance probe into the multi crore mining scam. The end result of the vigilance investigation is zero. Nothing has come out of it”, he asserted.
He, however, owned up moral responsibility for some of the BJD government's misdeeds. “I feel morally responsible. But I had to salvage the image of the chief minister”, he said when asked if he considered himself responsible for the misdeeds of the Naveen Patnaik led government.
Playing safe, he refused to divulge the names of conspirators responsible for his suspension from the party. “You know the names of the conspirators very well. Their names will be announced at an appropriate time”, he said.
Patnaik had suspended Mohapatra, his one-time indispensable advisor on June 1 this year, from the party after coming to know that the latter had tried to stage a coup to topple him when he was away on an official trip to London.
Mohapatra attacked the state government for its 'mindless industrialization drive' and held it (government) responsible for non-development of ancillary and downstream units. He also lamented that corruption in the state government has grown substantially but vowed to reverse the trend.
“OJM is a part and parcel of the BJD. We call it a movement for reforming and cleansing the party”, he maintained.