Bhubaneswar, April 5: The BJP today accused a senior bureaucrat in the chief minister’s office of carrying out poll management duties for the BJD.

“He is apparently acting as a general secretary of the BJD, starting from selection of party candidates to distribution of funds,” alleged BJP general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan at a news conference here today.

Pradhan said the party would formally lodge a complaint with the Election Commission. “Our demand is that the official’s mobile call records since imposition of the model code of conduct for the polls be examined and be made public,” he said, adding that a few officers working with the chief electoral officer’s office were in league with the bureaucrat. “At his behest, the officials are showing favours to the BJD,” he said.

The ruling party’s vice-president Kalpataru Das dismissed the allegations as “false, baseless and politically motivated”. “No officer in the chief minister’s office is involved in the BJD affairs. The BJP, which has become nervous about its imminent debacle, is making wild and baseless allegations,” said Das.

Referring to Naveen’s appeal not to vote for the BJP at the Centre, Pradhan said: “For which party Naveen is canvassing? Is he indirectly begging votes for the Congress as he wants to escape from the CBI probe into the mining scam and deposit collection scam?”

Reacting to Naveen’s allegation that the national parties were seeking votes in the name of Lord Jagannath, the BJP leader quipped, “Is the Lord a personal property of Naveen and the BJD? Let him explain who has mortgaged Puri Jagannath Dham in the hands of criminals?”