No scope to act against me; says Odisha Min Damodar Rout

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 23: 

War of words in Odisha’s ruling party today got murkier as Excise Minister and Biju Janata Dal Vice President Damodar Rout took on party spokespersons in an open defiance of party chief Naveen Patnaik’s orders.

A day after spokespersons- Samir Dash, Pratap Deb, Amar Prasad Satapathy, Dibya Sankar Mishra, Sashi Bhusan Behera and Pratap Jena repeatedly asked senior BJD ministers not to make controversial statements and warned action against doing so, Rout defied the orders and said that there is no scope to act against him.

“There is no scope to take any action against me. However, there are plenty of reasons to take disciplinary action against those leaders who are making such statements,” said Rout taking an obvious jibe at the BJD spokespersons.

Reacting to Rout’s statement, Spokesperson Samir Dash said that the Chief Minister will look into it and take necessary action.

“The order had been issued by our party chief. If someone defies it, the President would certainly look into it and take necessary action as he has done many times in the past. However, so far, we don’t have any information pertaining to any action taken against Damodar Rout. We will all get to know, as and when the president announces,” said Dash.