‘Office of Profit’ does not apply to Pvt Companies: Baijayant

ONI Bureau: Minutes after BJD leaders from Kendrapara held a press meet and asked Baijayant Panda to resign as the Lok Sabha MP, accusing him of violating the ‘Office of Profit’ rule, the suspended MP hit back asking them to read the rule book first.

“The Office of Profit rule does not apply to Private Organisations. It only applies to the posts held with Central-State Governments. I wonder how they hold a press meet without even trying to know the rules. Did not they earlier which organisation and business family I belong to,” he asked.

“There is no wrong in my poll affidavit as claimed by these leaders. I have my own team of lawyers who did proper groundwork before I filed the affidavit. These people are spreading blatant lies and misleading info without any basis,” Jay Panda said.

“Why they are targeting IMFA, which employs 6,000 employees? Why are they putting the lives of 6,000 families at risk? What’s wrong if I used IMFA choppers? Biju Babu had used IMFA’s Helicopters and Planes in the past. Even, Naveen Babu and other Ministers to used IMFA choppers. These allegations do not any make sense,” he said.

Earlier, BJD leaders Pratap Jena, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Bed Prakash Agrawala along with Dr. Sasmit Patra held a press conference saying Mr. Panda gave a false affidavit and hid the truth from his voters that he was a beneficiary of IMFA despite being a Parliamentarian. They asked him to resign from his post.