**Bhubaneswar:** The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday termed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s allegations of irregularities in CM Naveen Patnaik’s poll funding as “baseless” and sought an apology from the saffron party.
Addressing a press meet here, BJD MP Pinaki Mishra said, “BJP has brought these serious allegations without conducting a basic research which is unfortunate. I hope that the BJP has the good grace to issue a sincere apology to Naveen babu.”
The clarification came after a delegation of BJP sought an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the alleged dubious transactions in the ruling BJD account.
Earlier in the day, the delegation met ED Joint Director Madhab C. Mishra here and sought a probe into what they claimed were hawala transactions by the BJD and its President Naveen Patnaik.
“We requested the agency to probe who donated money to the Chief Minister and the BJD. We have sought the central agency’s help to unearth the truth,” state BJP Vice President Sameer Mohanty said.
The BJP delegation, he said, provided details of the bank account details of the BJD to the ED.
Earlier, the BJP had approached the Election Commission and the Income Tax Department over alleged poll funding irregularities.
BJD Spokesperson Sameer Das said the opposition party is “staging a drama” over the poll funding issue and trying to politicise the matter.
The Orissa High Court has deferred hearing on alleged poll funding irregularities till July 31.
