Internal feud at caste meet

Agriculture minister Damodar Rout and (above) Jagatsinghpur MLA Bishnu Charan Das. Telegraph pictures Bhubaneswar, Sept. 22: The infighting among senior leaders of the Biju Janata Dal today surfaced at a meeting of the Scheduled Castes Welfare Advisory Board, chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Two leaders – Jagatsinghpur MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai and Jagatsinghpur MLA Bishnu Charan Das – complained to the chief minister about certain derogatory remarks made against them by agriculture minister Damodar Rout. “Political issues should not have been raised in such official forum,” said a senior official. The chief minister remained tight-lipped on the issue during the meet. Sources, however, said Patnaik had assured the leaders that he would “look into the matter”. Though Tarai is a member of the CPI, a poll ally of the BJD, he belongs to the Das camp in district politics. Rout too hails from same district. Das and Rout are at loggerheads. The anti-Rout camp alleged that the minister said that the MP, the MLA and the local additional district magistrate – all belonging to the Harijan community – had been conspiring against him. Subsequently, a complaint was lodged and an FIR was registered against Rout. Today at the meeting when an important issue was to be raised, Tarai said that the derogatory remarks of Rout had offended the entire community and strong action should be taken against him. Das supported Tarai. “I urged the chief minister to give justice to us,” Das told newspersons. Moreover, Tarai reportedly showed Naveen a photograph in which supporters of Rout were allegedly seen burning an effigy of Das on August 24. Post meeting both Tarai and Das briefed the media about their demand for action against Rout. Rout was sidelined by the BJD Jagatsinghpur district unit, headed by Das. He was not invited to the Orissa Banchao rally, organised by the party at Jagatsinghpur on September 18. (Sourced from Telegraph)