**Bhubaneswar:** As the Panchayat Poll dates are inching near in Odisha, the blame game between the parties has risen.
Even though the tug of war between ruling BJD and its bête noire BJP over breaching of model code of conduct has been on, Congress instead of tangling with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led BJD seems to have preferred to take on the BJP in a bid to scuttle its virtually growing presence during the ensuing Panchayat Polls and try to strike the conscience of the grassroots-level voters as the post-demonetisation pangs are still afresh mostly in the villages.
Accordingly, Congress party arranged a press conference here at the Congress Bhawan on Saturday criticising the Central Government’s demonetisation move and alleging Modi’s link with the Sahara scam.
At the press conference, Baptu Chakrabarty, Member, AICC said, “On 22 November 2014, after Modi Government came into power, there was an income tax raid at the Sahara Group and a letter was recovered from there which is stated to be authentic by the IT officers. According to the IT records, Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, has taken money from the Sahara Group for 9 times. Why has he taken that money?”
Countering the allegations made by the opposition party, Sudipta Tarai, Leader, BJP, Odisha, said, “Why is Congress not raising the issues of 2G, 3G and 4G scams. IT officers have not said anything against Modi. Everyone is happy with the demonetisation move made by PM. They should also praise the positive effects of demonetisation.”
