Pradeep Panigrahi Outbursts

Bhubaneswar (Surjit Kumar Dhal): After his ouster from Biju Janata Dal for ‘anti-people activities’, Gopalpur legislator Pradeep Panigrahi yesterday slammed some politician and bureaucrats and said he paid price for writing and making call to Odisha Chief Minister and BJD boss Naveen Patnaik regarding COVID-19 mismanagement.

Once considered Naveen Patnaik’s ‘blue-eyed boy’, Pradeep spewed venom against the ruling-party while addressing a press conference. It is being said that it is probably the first time in the history of BJD that a leader has been expelled from the party for anti-people activities. Categorically refuting allegations on his involvement in any ‘anti-people activities’, Pradeep indicated towards a ‘conspiracy’ behind his expulsion from the ruling party. Raking the issue of Corona mismanagement, the legislator said three-time MLA Purna Chandra Swain had sought his help for an ambulance for his father who was tested positive with Coronavirus.

Citing another example, Pradeep said that he spoke with the Chief Minister over telephone after Biswaranjan Mohanty apprised him about the possibility of collapse of the Naveen Government. “Following this incident, MLA Pranab Prakash Das (Bobby) and Kandhamal MP Achyuta Samanta came to my house and pulled me for making a call to the chief minister. I had told that if the party doesn’t need me, I will quit and leave the State also. Later, they inquired about my daughter’s marriage which was scheduled for December 11 and said let us see,” alleged the Gopalpur MLA in a discussion with the Editor-In-Chief Surjit Kumar Dhal.

With this discussion Pradeep also came down heavily on the State of affairs in Odisha and said, “The administration is not being run by the Chief Secretary, but only one person controls the State,” said the expelled MLA while making a veiled attack on V Kartikeyan Pandian. The leaders who founded the party are being sidelined. Pradeep alleged that there is discontent among senior leaders in ruling BJD as they are not able to meet the party chief. As the Chief Minister is not aware of many things, I had written letters to him on several issues- migration, COVID-19 management and the experience gained from visit to Surat and Chennai, he said. “The State government was initially not in favour to bring back the migrant workers following the outbreak of COVID-19. It seems that I am now paying up the price for writing to the Chief Minister,” said the expelled leader.

After the attack on BJD leaders and Bureaucrats, Pradeep gave a clean chit to Akash Pathak, son of tainted IFS officer Abhay Pathak arrested by the vigilance few days ago on the charges of amassing assets worth crores disproportionate to his known sources of income. Pradeep said Akash, his would-be son-in-law was an alumni of Indian Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) and was working in Romania but came back to look after his ailing mother.

“He was also a good scholar and had secured top marks in Graduate Management Admission Test (GMET) in 2016. After then, he was given a high-profile position in Tata Group which allowed him to travel in chartered flight,” Pradeep added.