BJD hits back at Bijay, says he aspired for RS ticket
- Bhubaneswar: Days after Bijay Patnaik, a former chief secretary and ex-principal secretary to chief minister Naveen Patnaik, spewed venom against the BJD govern- Bijay in Bhubaneswar on Monday after joining the Congress, the ruling party on Monday said the retired bureaucrat had unsuccessfully tried ty said. to join the BJD and aspired to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
- After his retirement from the top bureaucratic service in 2013, Patnaik was desperate and hungry for power. He attempted to join politics by entering the BJD. "He had wished to go to Rajya Sabha by joining BJD. But his plan did not work out. After he was denied entry into the BJD, he joined the Congress," BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said.
- The BJD, which had not reacted to Patnaik's diatribes after his induction into Congress on Friday, came down he on him on Monday after the former bureaucrat again pulled up the government on different fronts, including the alleged shoddy Crime Branch probe into minister Naba Das killing, corruption and misgovernance. "We feel that Patnaik speaks the language of the BJP despite joining the Congress," Mohanty said.
- Patnaik, who was once known as Naveen's 'man Friday' and served as his principal secretary for six years between 2004 and 2010, denied the charges. "The BJD is lying. Naveen Patnaik has changed a lot now," he said.
- "I never tried to join BJD, whose ideologies have changed. I did not choose the BJP, which acts as a hand-in-glove with the BJD. Telangana chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao also invited me to join his party. For me, Congress is the best choice," said Patnaik, who served as the chief secretary between 2010 and 2013.