Bhubaneswar: Former chief minister and BJP leader Giridhar Gamang on Friday said he had been "painted as a villain" for his vote against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government on April 17, 1999, and asserted that Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and Farooq Abdullah's National Conference should also be blamed for toppling of the Government.

Gamang's historic vote in the Lok Sabha, at a time when he was also Odisha chief minister, had unseated the Vajpayee government.

He said: "Why people continue to blame me for the fall of the Atal government? I was not responsible. People should flip through the parliamentary records. Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and Farooq Abdullah's National Conference had withdrawn support from the government, not me. At that time, I was a chief minister and belonged to the Congress party. The party had asked me to vote on the confidence motion and I did it. If I had not, I would have faced the anti-defection law. I am aware of what the anti-defection law stipulates."

Attacking his critics, he said: "As I am a poor tribal man, every one tried to show me in a poor light. At that time Vajpayee belonged to the NDA and I belonged to the Congress. I did what the party had expected from me."

However, he said: "My voting did not have any impact in my relations with Vajpayee. The BJP made it an election issue and came back to power. Both Vajpayee ji and I remained colleagues and spent a lot of time in Parliament. I just want to remind you that if he was a 10-time Lok Sabha MP, I had gone to Parliament nine times. From this one can know how much time did we had spent together. Politics and personal issues are two different things."

Gamang, however, regretted that the Congress did not issue a clarification on his vote despite the controversy.

However, much water has since flown down the Mahanadi. Accusing the Congress of ignoring him, Gamang switched side to jump onto the BJP bandwagon in 2015. On its part the BJP seems to have forgotten and forgiven Gamang's controversial vote. Gamang flew to Delhi on Friday to pay respects to Vajpayee.

Recalling Vajpayee's help during the 1999 Super Cyclone, which had claimed more than 10,000 lives, he said: "We were passing through hard times. But Atal ji had given me a free hand and asked me to go ahead and spend money wherever required. He had assured to provide all kinds of assistance and told me that every issue concerning the people will be addressed."