The cracks within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have begun to surface. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday lashed out at Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh over his remarks on Odisha’s Mahanadi water issue.
Pradhan said Odisha’s right on Mahanadi cannot be compromised. “Raman Singh’s statement on Mahanadi should be condemned. Water Minister Sanjeev Baliyan has said in Parliament that Chhattisgarh has made a mistake (by constructing barrages),” Pradhan said.
Pradhan was reacting to Singh’s statement. He had earlier said, “We (Chhattisgarh) are using the Mahanadi waters. We will use more in future.”
Singh added that the Odisha government’s protests over Mahanadi was “an election issue” which would disappear after the polls.
The Pradhan-Singh rivalry is of significance ahead of the Odisha polls in 2019. Pradhan had been refraining from criticising the Chhattisgarh government until now. But Mahanadi row in the state has escalated and BJP leaders conceded that pressure must be mounting on the BJP to say something on it, an Indian Express report said.
Read: Centre’s Silence Over Mahanadi Dispute ‘Sad’: Patnaik
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has raised the issue many times. It had described Raman Singh’s statement as “destructive” and “violative of the Constitution” and demanded a response from Pradhan.
During a rally, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said, “BJP leaders from Odisha support Chhattisgarh, yet shed crocodile tears (for Odisha).”
BJD had also attributed its victory in the Bijepur assembly by-poll to the BJP’s silence on the Mahanad issue. The party won more than 41,000 votes despite a high-voltage campaign by the BJP which was led by Dharmendra Pradhan among others.