The ruling BJD in Odisha and the opposition BJP Thursday lodged a complaint against each with the visiting Election Commission of India (ECI) team.
A six-member ECI team led by Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa and comprising deputy election commissioner Chandrabhusan Kumar, director general (Expenditure) D K Sharma, ADG (PIB) Sefali Saran, Director Nikhil Kumar and secretary Rakesh Kumar are in Odisha to review the poll preparations in the state.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) levelled the allegations against each other when their representatives met the ECI team.
BJD leader Amar Patnaik, who led his party's delegation said, "We have urged the ECI to keep a strict vigil on petrol pumps which are being used to stock and transfer cash during elections. This has happened during previous by-poll."
Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra after meeting the ECI team told reporters, "We have drawn (the) attention of the ECI towards the blatant misuse of government machineries by the state's BJD government and Centre's BJP government."