 "Padhi, however, describes himself as a mere emissary given the responsibility of depositing the money collected from party members")
The name Purna Chandra Padhi did not ring a bell with the people of Odisha until recently, when it popped up on a national channel in connection with irregularities in the funding of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the state’s ruling party for the last 17 years. “Peon donates Rs 1 crore to BJD party fund,” screamed the headline.
Padhi, who used to run errands at the BJD party office and Naveen Nivas (the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik), was at the centre of a media expose on funds received by the party, allegedly from dubious and anonymous sources.
For
