BJP targets Manmohan Singh, Naveen Patnaik over coalgate

BHUBANESWAR: A couple of days after Union minister and Congress leader V Narayanasamy's bitter diatribe against the BJP over the logjam in Parliament over Coalgate, the saffron party on Saturday sought the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief minister Naveen Patnaik for allegedly perpetrating the coal allocation scam. They party also demanded an inquiry into Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT).
Accusing Naveen of acting in connivance with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, state BJP president Jual Oram said, "Naveen and Sonia are old friends. They are hand-in-glove. But do not point fingers at each other although they claim to be rivals in public."
Addressing a public meeting near Raj Bhavan, Oram and other state BJP leaders flayed the Congress-led central government and the BJD-led state government for allegedly committing irregularities in allocation of coal blocks. "Why are they afraid of an impartial probe? We challenge them to conduct a thorough probe and punish the guilty," Oram said.
Former minister BJP leader B B Harichandan demanded Naveen's ouster for favouring private companies during coal block allocation. "One who recommends is equally liable as the one who commits corruption," Harichandan noted. Incidentally, the BJP was BJD's ally in the state government from March 2000, till March 2009.
The ruling BJD debunked the allegations, saying it had made the recommendations in a "transparent manner". "They should ask their (BJP) central leader Dharmendra Pradhan who publicly gave a clean chit to chief minister recommending coal blocks for companies who set up thermal power plants in the state," minister D P Mishra said, adding, "We don't want BJP's advise on how to go about things."
The development coincided with a host of senior state BJP leaders like K V Singhdeo, Manmohan Samal, Bijay Mohapatra and Jayanarayan Mishra meeting party national chief Nitin Gadkari at New Delhi to discuss organisational matters.