Presidential candidate PA Sangma holds his mask with Maharashtra BJP MPs and MLAs during his election campaign in Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar, July 10: UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee’s scheduled visit to the state tomorrow has charged the political atmosphere here.

While the Congress is pulling out all stops to make his visit a success, the BJD, which is backing Mukherjee’s rival P.A. Sangma, is unwilling to relent in its campaign against the former finance minister. Sangma is likely to visit the state on July 15.

The war of words between Union minister of state for chemical and fertilisers Srikant Jena and the BJD also got shriller as Jena sought to project a pro-tribal image of his party, saying the Congress has had two tribals as chief ministers in the past (Hemanand Biswal and Giridhar Gamang).

To this senior BJD leader and health minister Prasanna Acharya retorted saying: “The Congress showed its first tribal chief minister (Hemanand Biswal) the door in just three months while the other could barely last nine months. So much for the party’s love for tribals.”

Sources said Acharya’s rejoinder was a calculated move on the part of the BJD to queer Mukherjee’s pitch while enhancing the chances of Sangma.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who was the first to propose the Meghalaya strongman’s name for the top job, has also sought to project a pro-tribal image of himself.

Jena sought to target the BJD on the issue of Odisha not being able to use central funds while crying hoarse about the UPA’s alleged neglect of the state.

“I have already written a letter to the BJD supremo and chief minister on this issue. Unfortunately, he is yet to respond. He should nominate someone, who can give me a reply,” said Jena, repeating his invitation to Naveen to debate on the issue with him publicly. “Let him come forward. I am ready for a debate with him,” he said.

Naveen was the first to drag Mukherjee into a controversy when earlier this week he alleged that the UPA nominee had doled out huge sums of money to states such as Bihar, UP and Bengal in his capacity as finance minister with an eye to their support in his bid for presidency.

Later, more controversies cropped up when Sangma pointed an accusing finger at his rival, saying that Mukherjee had not resigned from certain offices of profit that he held even after filing his nomination. As the run up to the presidential poll got murkier, the BJD took the opportunity to embarrass Jena saying that he as minister of state for statistics and programme implementation had helped Mukherjee resign from the chairmanship of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), an alleged office of profit, in a backdate.

It is amid this atmosphere of ill-will and mistrust generated by these controversies that Mukherjee is arriving here tomorrow to seek the support of Congress MLAs and MPs for his candidature. While the fear of cross-voting continues to haunt the BJD in the wake of the failed coup against the chief minister, state Congress ruled out any split in their ranks.

“Cross-voting is unethical. As far as we are concerned, all our MPs and MLAs would cast their votes in favour of Mukherjee, who, in any case, is going to win this contest hands down,” said Jena. The same sentiments were also mirrored by Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik.

On the other hand, former Union minister and state Congress affairs-in-charge Jagdish Tytler sought to create a division within the BJD ranks, saying the party leaders would do well to recall the shoddy treatment meted out to the late Biju Patnaik, father of Naveen, by Sangma when the latter was the speaker of the Lok Sabha.

“Let the ruling party MLAs listen to their conscience in this matter,” Tytler quipped.

In yet another development, NCP state unit chief Utkal Kesari Parida today submitted a petition to the speaker of the Assembly, seeking the disqualification of the four party MLAs, who had joined BJD last month.

“They have betrayed the party. They should be disqualified as members of the Assembly,” he said.