BJP holds unique protest to highlight BJD's hand-in-glove' support to liquor mafias

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday staged a demonstration here at Kalpana Square, demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the recent seizure of Rs 350 crore cash linked to Congress' Jharkhand Rajya Sabha member Dheeraj Sahu.

The saffron party workers, as a mark of protest, placed baskets of fake currency notes on the road and questioned BJD’s silence in the matter.

Accusing the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government of liquor trade corruption to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore, the BJP workers demanded a “detailed CBI probe” into the incident.

They also demanded a clarification on the ownership of the seized cash and asked if the money belonged to the liquor traders or BJD’s party fund.

“This is not protest. This is an awareness programme for the people of Odisha to know the truth about BJD. They are ruling us for 24 years now, but they claim to have no knowledge about the seized cash, which is surprising. This clearly proves that the government is hand-in gloves with the liquor traders. They use such ill-gotten and black money to fund their elections,” said Babu Singh, Bhubaneswar BJP unit president.

Stating that the huge cash seizure was just the tip of the iceberg, Singh said there were a lot of such illegal trades going on through which BJD made black money.

“The BJD uses the black money accrued from the liquor trade for their political gains and election campaigning. So, we demand a CBI probe and expose all those ministers, MLAs MPs, or any other political leaders who are involved in this fraud. This money belongs to the poor. They are strangling the poor to gain such money. So, a CBI raid will only expose this fraud,” he added.

Jagannath Pradhan, another senior leader, said, “The state government claims Odisha to be a poor state. So much of much was recovered from just one liquor trader. Imagine how much money can be recovered as the government has allowed such selling of liquor throughout Odisha. We suspect the amount will go above and beyond Rs 50,000 crore.”

“Only the CBI probe will bring out the truth. So, we are sitting in protest. We had staged protests in Acharya Vihar, Master Canteen, and now in Kalpana Square. Our agitation will continue till the truth comes out,” he added.

Senior BJP leader, Dillip Malick said, “Odisha is earning all the bad names because of the liquor trade, corruption, and lawlessness under the rule of Naveen Patnaik. The ruling BJD will be shunted out from power by the voters in 2024.”