Bhupinder lambasts ‘Jena Brothers’; sings paeans to Naveen
Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Mar 8:
Bhupinder Singh, who left the Congress and joined the ruling BJD today, blasted Union Minister Srikant Jena and PCC president Jaydev Jena for bringing the party to ruins. They are working in their own selfish interest, ignoring the party cadres and taking every decision without taking the senior leaders into confidence, he alleged.
“Union Minister Srikant Jena and PCC president do not take the leaders into confidence while taking decision on important matters. Forget consulting me as the leader of opposition, they did even bother informing me while taking major decisions. They selected Rajya Sabha candidate, but did not ask me. Neither was I informed before they took the decision to expel Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. I protested, but they never paid heed. They shifted PEC to New Delhi, I had no information. I am the Leader of Opposition, but don’t have knowledge of party functioning,” said Singh at a press conference here clarifying his stand on quitting the party he has spent a lifetime with.
Singh accused the state leadership of asking him to quit from the post of Congress Legislature Party. They felt the vote share of Congress will increase if it is given to a scheduled caste leader, he alleged.
“When I was asked to resign as the Leader of Opposition, I said why not resign from the primary membership of the party itself. I am pained to inform you that I felt humiliated,” rued Singh.
The new BJD leader said he had decided to resign as MLA too. He informed that he had resigned from the party on March 3 when he sent his resignation letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
“The state unit is not functioning as it should function. It should be above caste politics. I found our actions were contrary to what we say in public. Many senior leaders feel neglected; they are not taken into confidence. Even the coordination committee is ignored. The party cannot function on the whims of two or three individuals who do not even subscribe to the party ideology,” read the resignation letter of Singh.
For all the attacking instincts he showed against his former party, however, Singh was extremely defensive when quizzed on how he suddenly found Naveen Patnaik, against whom he was was going hammer and tongs all these years, such a sweet person and ‘good human being’.
“Naveen Patnaik is a good human being. All that I was saying against Naveenji and BJD inside and outside of the state Assembly was as Leader of Opposition. Now I am a BJD man,” he said.
He was also apologetic about the serious charges of corruption against the ruling party in the mining and chit fund scams.
“All the corruption charges are pending in the Supreme Court and once the charges are disproved, Naveen will be a clean man again,” said Singh changing his tone.
Mr. Bhupinder, you are a shameless creature. Now Mr. Naveen became a good man for you when you are being kicked out from Congress.
All shameless persons who switch loyalties should be kicked out from politics. Atleast one should have retired with some grace…He was the enemy within, always tried to defeat his own congressmen in all elections including RS election. He had internal linkage with BJD and always took money to defeat Congress in one way or the other. Now it is clear that he is out. If Naveen is so clean, how Prashnt Nanda, who was kicked out of the ministry by him was again re inducted. Strange, our Odiya people are happy with little bribes.