Bhubaneswar, June 17: The Congress and the BJP today criticised chief minister Naveen Patnaik for announcing that the audio cassette controversy pertaining to the Rajya Sabha elections in 2010 would be examined by the home department.

Naveen who had been repeatedly stating for the last one week that the matter “is being looked into”, today issued a statement through his office stating that the matter “has been referred to the home department for examination”.

The statement did not indicate the agency that would conduct an inquiry into the episode. Police, vigilance wing and the crime branch are functioning under the home department. The Opposition parties were critical of the “vague statement”.

Two audio cassettes surfaced indicating that horse trading had taken place during the Rajya Sabha elections in 2010. One of the audio tapes purportedly has the voice of Naveen’s labour minister Pushpendra Singhdeo negotiating with a middleman to bribe Congress MLA Shibaji Majhi. During the conversation with the middleman, Singhdeo had stated clearly about the involvement of energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra in the deal.

Another tape, which was subsequently aired on another private TV channel, businessman Tara Ranajn Patnaik, the combined candidate of the Congress and the BJP for the Rajya Sabha, was heard offering money to buy the support of BJP MLA Hitesh Bagarti. According to the audio tape, one MLA was reportedly given Rs 60 lakh to cast his vote in favour of Naveen.

In the Rajya Sabha elections held on June 17, 2010, all the three candidates of the BJD, namely Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Sashi Bhushan Behera and Baishnab Parida, had romped home as three opposition MLAs — Shibaji Majhi, Gregory Minz (both Congress) and Bhimsen Chouhdary (BJP) — abstained from voting.

Criticising the chief minister, BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said: “Without making it clear which investigative agency will conduct the inquiry, the chief minister is ridiculing himself. Naveen has found out a dictionary for himself. He should have made it clear whether he is ordering an administrative inquiry or a criminal inquiry. Why can’t he order the secretariat, instead of only the home department, to conduct the inquiry,” Mohapatra said.

Accusing the chief minister of being “guilty in the horse trading issue”, Mohapatra said: “How can the home department conduct an inquiry against the chief minister? Isn’t the home department under him?”

Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranajan Patnaik said the government had made a mockery of itself. “The home department’s inquiry does not mean anything. The chief minister should have more specific. The controversy relating to the audio tapes should be handed over to the CBI.”

Eminent lawyer and senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra criticised the inquiry ordered by the chief minister. Mishra, who is heading his party’s three-member panel looking into the controversy, said: “How can an accused (read the chief minister) do his own investigation. The home department, which is functioning under the chief minister, can not do an impartial probe,” he said.

Terming the inquiry as an “eye wash”, state BJP unit president Jual Oram said: “What are the terms of references of this probe? As two ministers and four to five MLAs were involved in the horse trading, the government should hand over the case to the CBI,” he said.