Sibaji Majhi

Bhubaneswar, June 14: The Congress high command today suspended Lanjigarh MLA Sibaji Majhi for defying the party whip and abstaining from voting during the Rajya Sabha elections held on June 17, 2010.

The issue has come into focus following the appearance of an audio tape in which Orissa’s labour and employment minister Pushpendra Singhdeo is heard bargaining with a middleman to buy over Majhi.

However, Majhi claimed innocence and said he had abstained from voting owing to ill health.

It was alleged that he had abstained from voting by taking a huge sum of money from the BJD. The BJD had tried to buy over Shibaji with the help of Puspendra Singhdeo and energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak.

Interestingly, another audio cassette, allegedly showing BJP leaders talking about exchange of money during the last Rajya Sabha elections from one businessman, Tara Ranajan Patnaik, who had contested the Rajya Sabha election as an independent candidate, has also surfaced. Both the Congress and the BJP supported Patnaik.

In this tape aired on another private TV channel, the Opposition-backed candidate Patnaik comes across as distributing money among the MLAs to buy their support. The tape revealed that Patnaik had talked to senior BJP leader Jaynaryan Mishra to get support of the BJP MLA Hitesh Bagartia.

According to the tape, Bagartia was given Rs 60 lakh to cast his vote in favour of Patnaik.

However, Mishra refuted the allegations. He said: “This is a drama enacted with the help of technology after names of the BJD bigwig Pyari Mohan Mohapatra and two ministers Atanu Sabya Sachi Nayak and Puspendra Singhdeo have surfaced in connection with horse trading.”

Mishra said he was ready for any probe to clear his name. Interestingly, Patnaik, too, denied the allegation saying the charges were false. “Why should I offer money to buy votes,” he said.

The BJD leaders hope that with the appearance of the new tape, the controversy surrounding the BJP leaders will die down automatically. “Now, they have been caught bribing an MLA.

The BJP, which has been targeting the BJD, will certainly be on backfoot,” said a senior BJD MLA.