Central dole for prez bid, claims naveen
Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik has dropped a bombshell by accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee of doling out large sums of money to selective states to buy support of certain political parties.
“Mr Pranab Mukherjee, as finance minister of India, has been doling out huge sum of money... lakhs of crores... to certain states like Bihar, Bengal and UP,” Mr Patnaik, who is also the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president, told reporters here on Sunday night after his return from his trip to New Delhi.
“Could it be that this money is going because he wants certain parties to support his candidature as Rashtrapati of India?” he asked.
The chief minister said huge Central funds were given to states ruled by Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (Uttar Pradesh), Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (Bihar) and Mamata Benerjee’s Trinamul Congress (West Bengal).
“This is not private money but people’s money, your money. Why is so much money being given by the Central government when the presidential elections are going on?” he questioned.
Mr Patnaik, who was the first political leader to propose the name of P.A. Sangma in May, had earlier criticised the UPA for not extending its support to a “tall” tribal leader like Mr Sangma.
Despite knowing that the figures were not in support of Sangma, the Odisha chief minister is strongly canvassing for the former Lok Sabha member to hold strike an emotional chord with the 28 per cent state’s tribal population ahead of the 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
He was also the first to sign as a proposer on Mr Sangma’s nomination papers.
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