BJD to back NDA candidate in RS Deputy Chairman polls, Congress criticises

BJD on Monday extended support to NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh in the election for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman drawing sharp criticism from the Congress who said the regional party's true face has been revealed.

The election is likely to be he held on Monday and BJD president Naveen Patnaik, who is also the Odisha Chief Minister, announced the party's support for the NDA candidate just hours before it.

A release by the Chief Minister's Office said Patnaik announced his party's support for Singh after JD(U) chief and his Bihar counterpart called him up in the morning, a CMO release said.

Kumar had called him up on September 10 too and had requested him to support Singh, a JD(U) MP who had filed his nomination on Wednesday.

BJD had issued a whip to its Rajya Sabha MPs the next day September 11 to remain present in the Rajya Sabha throughout the day on Monday as some important legislative business will be taken up on September 14.

Nine of the 10 Rajya Sabha members from the state are of the BJD. BJP has one RS MP from the state.

The BJD had in 2018 too supported Singh in the election for Rajya Sabha deputy chairman post. Singh had then defected Congress B K Hariprasad and became the RS deputy chairman.

The post, however, fell vacant after Singh's term in the Rajya Sabha expired in April 2020. He has now been re-elected to it and is contesting again for the same post.

Opposition Congress has criticised the BJD for its support to Singh. BJDs real face has again been revealed after it declared support to the NDA candidate for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election. BJD has been supporting BJP in all issues and they are one party, Odisha PCC president Niranjan Patnaik said in a video message.

He accused the regional party of misleading the people of Odisha and said "The BJD has all along been supporting BJP even though it talks about maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. In fact, there is no difference between the BJD and the BJP, the OPCC president asserted.