Naveen Patnaik close to Modi, Shah: Former Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Jitendra Singh Saturday claimed Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik remained close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Dubbing BJD as the B-Team of the BJP, Singh said the Odisha government is being remote controlled by officers who he alluded were in the chief minister's office.

Singh, who was here to address a press conference, said: "It is a matter of grave concern that the BJD president Naveen Ji has been 'sitting in the laps' of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. It is not that he is abiding by Modi and Shah now, it has been happening since a long time."

He went on to claim that the state was being run by a coterie of powerful officers and not by its political leadership.

"I feel pity for the Odisha ministers, MPs and MLAs who are found sitting outside the chambers of these officers. Their condition is precarious in the state," Singh said.

Referring to the inaugural function of new Parliament building in the national capital slated for Sunday, Singh said Naveen has joined hands with BJP leaders to "insult" the Hon'ble President of India.

"By supporting Modi with regard to Parliament building inauguration, Naveen has also insulted Droupadi Murmu, who happens to be daughter of Odisha. They have insulted the state and the entire country by denying the President the right to inaugurate the new Parliament building," he said.

He claimed that the opposition leaders who are boycotting the Parliament inauguration function are worried that it will be an insult to the first citizen of the country.

The BJD's reactions to Singh's statement could not be acertained despite several attempts.

Singh also alleged that the BJP used Pulwama incident to its political benefit.

The Congress leader also said that former governor of Jammu & Kashmir Satpal Malik's claims that the incident could have been averted if standard operating procedures on movement of central police and army perswonnel was followed.

Singh said, "He is right. There is a SOP for movement of army and central armed force personnel in critical areas. It was not followed in Pulwama for which brave sons of the soil attained martyrdom. The government did not allowed air surveillance during the force movement.