A first information report (FIR) was on Friday lodged with capital police station here alleging that Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and three of his party’s top leader had indulged in horse-trading in the 2010 Rajya Sabha polls.
In the FIR, the complainant Debi Prasad Prusty said that chief minister Mr Patnaik, his party leaders Pyarimohan Mohapatra, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Puspendra Singhdeo had hatched a conspiracy to ensure victory of their third candidate Baishnab Charan Parida who did not have support of the required number of MLAs.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal fielded three candidates — Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Sashibhusan Behera and Baishnab Charan Parida. With its 103 MLAs in the 147-member Assembly, the BJD was sure about victory of its first two candidates, while the third candidate was short of three MLAs.
However, as Mr Prusty alleged in the FIR, the BJD leaders managed to “buy” Congress MLA from Lanjigarh Shivaji Majhi by paying him lakhs of rupees and forced the BJP MLA from Bonai, Mr Bhimsen Chodhury, to abstain from voting that led to the defeat of independent candidate Tara Ranjan Patnaik.
The Congress and BJP were backing the independent candidate Tara Ranjan Patnaik who was confident of his victory as he had the required number of 32 MLAs in his support.
The complainant mentioned in the FIR details about an audio expose where minister Puspendra Singhdeo is purportedly heard bargaining deals with the middlemen to get Shivaji Majhi’s support.