BJD turned arrogant after staying in power for long: Pradhan

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today dubbed the BJD government in Odisha as "arrogant" for remaining in power for a long time.
"It's quite natural that a person becomes arrogant after remaining in power for a long time. It is not an exception in case of Naveen Babu, too," he told reporters here.
Pradhan's statement comes a day after BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accused Opposition parties of making "false propaganda" against his government.
The Union minister alleged that BJD is "neck deep" in corruption and that 'PC' (percentage commission) is a regular affair in the state.
Stating that Patnaik himself has stressed on complete abolition of percentage commission, Pradhan said that such practices have become more prevalent in PWD and Irrigation Departments, which are under the chief minister.

"If opposition rakes up the same issue, he (Patnaik) calls it false propaganda," he said.

Pradhan wondered whether raising incidents of bridge collapses and findings of a recent CAG report on Anganwadi centres were also false propaganda.
The ruling BJD, however, countered Pradhan's remarks.
Senior party leader and minister Damodar Rout alleged that Pradhan was elevated to Cabinet rank by persuading with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Not 'Mati' (country), but party comes first for him. He is utilising government money for his own interests unlike us. His party had got 36 seats when they were with us, the number of seats came down to six after they snapped ties with us," Rout said.

BJP spokesperson Prashant Nanda said the people of Odisha know Patnaik very well as they have kept him in power for 17 years.
"The BJP-led NDA government is hijacking state schemes like 'Mamata Yojana' and many more. People have rejected them for last several years," he added.