Speculation is rife that Naveen babu wants to induct fresh blood in the party at the cost of old guards. Being the vice-president of the party, what do you have to say?

During elections, all political parties try to infuse new blood by replacing persons who have lost touch with people at the grassroots level. In the process, the party leadership replaces individuals irrespective of their age. They could be old or young. The leadership takes various factors, such as winnability and loyalty to the leadership, into consideration while deciding who to give a party ticket. As far as our party is concerned, the issue of showing the exit door to aged people, in my view, is a political gossip.

For the first time, the BJD will face the elections without Pyari Mohan Mohapatra. He was supposed to be the one who anchored the polls on behalf of the party. Will it affect the BJD?

Pyari is a paper tiger. The reality is that Naveen babu used to take decisions. Pyari was a bureaucrat. After he retired, he joined politics. At that time, Naveen babu perhaps thought that he would be an asset to the party. He, being a bureaucrat, had a say on the administration. Naveen babu later realised that Pyari had been nursing another dream and had been conspiring against him. So, he was removed. A betrayer will never gain the trust of the people. Pyari’s departure or his party will have no influence on the electoral prospects of the BJD. Our party enjoys popular support.

Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena, who heads the Congress poll campaign committee, is critical of your government’s failure on various fronts including implementation of central government-sponsored projects. Don’t you think that the Congress, under his leadership, is a threat to your party?

Srikant Jena ditched the late Biju Patnaik, Naveen Patnaik and the BJD when he joined the Congress party. He is a minister at the Centre. Though he is a minister from the state and is in charge of fertilisers and chemicals, there is no railway rake arrangement to carry fertilisers in 17 of the state’s 30 districts. Farmers of Balasore, the constituency that he represents in the Lok Sabha, are acquiring fertilisers from Bhadrak. He has not been able to provide the basic minimum facility to the farmers of his constituency. What can he do for the state? An empty vessel sounds much.

Jena, in his interview with The Telegraph had asserted that he had never betrayed Biju. Instead, he had accused Naveen of compromising with the principles of Biju by compromising with the RSS ideology and forging an alliance with the BJP.

Jena had prevented Biju babu from becoming the Prime Minister (when H.D. Deve Gowda assumed the reins in the coalition government which was formed with the support of the Congress).

He teamed up with anti-Biju people, including the CPI and the CPM, and ensured that Biju babu did not become the prime minister. This is known to all. After Biju Patnaik’s demise, Naveen babu entered politics. Even before the BJD was formed, he had joined the Congress, leaving Naveen Babu.

It was perhaps political expediency for Naveen babu to be associated with the BJP to form the government in Odisha. But when the communal character of the BJP surfaced after the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, he severed the ties with the BJP. He is maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. We will continue to stick to the stand taken by our leader.

The Congress party is making the issue of mining scam as a poll campaign. Their leaders are saying that the MB Shah Commission wants a CBI probe into the scam. Don't you think that it's an accusation against your government?

Most of the mine owners belong to the Congress. Besides, the maximum mining leases were issued by the Congress-led governments at the state as well as the Centre. The issue will have no effect on the elections.

The Shah Commission has raised an accusing finger at the state government saying that about Rs 60,000 crore was looted from the mining sector during your regime…

Justice Shah commission has blamed both the state government and the Centre. But, the state government has a very little role in preventing illegal mining. It is the central government that enjoys the power to grant mining leases and the Indian Bureau of Mines is the central government agency to guard the mining activities anywhere in the country.

Do you favour a CBI probe into the mining scam?

When the issue is pending before the Supreme Court, I will not say anything. Let me make it clear that no conscious citizen country will support corruption at any level. Odisha is endowed with natural resources. Any kind of misappropriation, no doubt, is detrimental to the interests of the state.

You are pointing fingers at the Congress. One of the major accused in the mining scam, Deepak Gupta, an under trial, had managed to stay in hospital for 103 of his 169 days of imprisonment. Being the health minister, won't you agree that it was a lapse on the part of your government?

People with vested interests are everywhere. Five policemen have already been suspended. If doctors or employees of the health department have colluded with him, we will certainly punish them.

Congress leaders are saying that that during the UPA regime, they managed to get so many medical colleges for the state. During the NDA government, of which your party was a constituent, you could not manage to get even a nursery school.

Odisha had only one medical college until 1960. In 1962, during Biju babu’s regime, two more medical colleges were established. After that, when the Congress has been in power, nothing happened.

In the last 14 years during which Naveen babu has been in power, 12 medical colleges have come up. The UPA government will set up 65 new medical colleges across the country. We asked for four. The Centre is not doing any favour to us.

The other allegation is that the BJD government is renaming central government-sponsored projects and projecting them as its schemes.

lIt is a federal system. The Union government has to discharge its obligations. The reality is that that the UPA government is violating constitutional norms. To give you an example, the Centre earned Rs 14,000 crore in revenue last year from Odisha, but it allocated only Rs 700 crore for development of railways in the state. There has been no revision of coal royalty. The state is losing a huge amount on a daily basis.

The other allegation is that your government has been consistently failing to spend Central funds?

Well, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia during his visit this week has said that that our growth rate is better than many other states.

Is your party scared of the BJP? Its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has been drawing huge crowd all over the country.

There is no Modi wave here. Odias hate communal politics.