Niranjan demands AICC probe into ‘sale’ of Cong tickets in Odisha polls

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Aug 29:

Senior Congress leader and former president of the Odisha unit of the party Niranjan Patnaik today joined other Congress leaders in demanding an inquiry by the AICC to clear the air over public perception that tickets were sold during the twin polls in the state held in April this year.

“There are allegations that Congress tickets were sold during the elections in the state. This is a shame for the party. So, I would request the AICC to conduct an inquiry to find out the truth and present it before the public. If such a thing has not happened, then our honour will remain intact. If not, the reputation of the party would not suffer immensely,” said Patnaik.

He demanded strong action against the persons who have allegedly sold tickets to Congress leaders and others during the elections.

He also denied being in the race for the PCC president again. “I was replaced on the ground that I am incompetent. Why will they make me president once again?” asked the former PCC president.

It is to be noted that several senior Congress leaders, including Sitakanta Mohapatra, have accused PCC President Jayadev Jena of selling party tickets during the recently concluded elections.

“Party tickets were sold and this is evident from the publicly made statements of some aspirants. Bhokali Sethi, one such aspirant, has told the media openly that he was denied a ticket only because he failed to pay an additional Rs 5 lakh though he was offered a candidature initially after giving some money,” Mohaptra said.