BJP to use scams as weapons to nail Naveen
Focus on mining, chit fund scams to stop Cong from wooing voters on these issues.
Bhubaneswar: Often pulled up by the rivals for not showing “genuine concern” over the mega scams in Odisha, the BJP seems to be changing its stand and contemplating to launch the final assault on the BJD in order to wrest power in 2019.
Two major scams — the alleged Rs 3-lakh crore mining scam and Rs 32,000-crore chit fund scam — are most likely to become BJP’s major weapons during the 2019 election campaign to dislodge the Naveen Patnaik government that has been in power in Odisha since 2000.
The BJP’s intent to hunt down the BJD was made clear in the executive meeting held here on October 7. The meeting passed a resolution in which the mining and chit fund scams figured prominently.
In the resolution, the saffron party alleged official patronisation by the BJD government to the blatant plunder of state’s mineral wealth by mining mafias and swindling of public money by fraudulent chit fund firms.
Union textile minister Smriti Irani, who attended the state executive meeting, announced that the BJP would hit the streets on the mega scams, seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Political analysts see strong pressure from the public as well as grassroots workers of the BJP behind its focus on the mining and chit fund scams in the political resolution. In fact, on the eve of 2014 general elections, the then BJP president and Union home minister Rajnath Singh had assured the people of Odisha of a CBI probe into the mining scam.
The “criminal angle” in the mining scam is still to be probed.
Until recently, many in the state saw the BJP’s silence over mining and chit fund scams a sign of party’s strategy not to trouble Naveen Patnaik as he could be a potential ally in the 2019 post-poll scenario.
The new Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik, who has seemingly resurrected the rank and file after he took over the party’s charge early this year, has been questioning the soft stand of the BJP and BJD leaders on mining mafia and chit fund scam accused.