Union ministers to skip sports meet in Odisha

MINISTERS’ DECISION TO GIVE THE EVENT A MISS COMES AMID A BITTER POLITICAL TUSSLE BETWEEN RULING BJD AND BJP IN THE STATE

Union sports minister Vijay Goel, his ministerial colleagues and BJP’s Odisha heavyweights, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, will not attend the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar starting Thursday.

The leaders have cited different reasons, but their decision comes amid a bitter political fight between the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Incidentally, BJP president Amit Shah is in the midst of a three-day tour to Odisha and has taken on the BJD.

Odisha is hosting the five-day 22nd Asian Athletics Championships, the biggest sporting event in the state’s history, at Kalinga Stadium. The Odisha government formally invited Goel for the opening ceremony but he will not attend because of “prior engagements”. A member of Goel’s office said the minister had more pressing work in Delhi.

Union petroleum minister Pradhan’s aides said he would be abroad on the scheduled day. Union tribal affairs minister Oram did not pull punches and expressed annoyance over “lack of courtesy”.

Oram, who recently accused the state government of making the sports event a ruling party affair, said he was invited only for the closing day ceremony. He added that the state government was making it look like as if it organised the event on its own without any help from the Centre.

Questioning the “boycott” by the BJP ministers, BJD MP Pratap Deb said, “It is unfortunate that BJP is playing politics over an event that has brought pride to the state.”

The BJD snapped its 11-yearold ties with the BJP ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha and Odisha polls. Shah is on a whirlwind tour of the state to restructure the party apparatus at grassroots ahead of the 2019 assembly polls.

Shah, who kick-started his campaign on Tuesday , is trying to make it a high-pitched battle between BJD and BJP in the polls.

Huge posters of Shah recently came up on the road lining Kalinga Stadium. This triggered a war of words between the two parties . Barely hours before the event, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation officials pulled down Shah’s posters and BJP party flags on the road lining the stadium. This led to a protest by BJP workers.