BJD supported NDA RS Dy Chairman candidate due to CBI fear: Congress
Bhubaneswar, Aug 9 : The Odisha unit of the Congress on Thursday said that the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supported the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson's post in fear of a CBI inquiry into the chit fund scam.
The party also said that this move strengthens the ongoing rumour of seat sharing discussions between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the BJD.
"BJD supporting the NDA candidate for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman election isn't surprising at all, that's what allies are supposed to do. It's a deal to stop CBI from exposing BJD's misdeeds," said Pradesh Congress Committee President Niranjan Patnaik.
Its claim of maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP will be judged by the people, said Patnaik.
Notably, the NDA-supported candidate, Harivansh Narayan Singh, is a JD(U) MP. The BJD explained that it decided to support the JD(U) candidate since the JD(U) and the BJD have similar ideological origins, emerging from the Jayprakash Narayan movement.
It said that in the highest traditions of a parliamentary democracy, constitutional posts like that of the Speaker and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha should be decided by a consensus instead of elections.
Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Harivansh Narayan Singh on being elected as the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman on Thursday.
"A socialist leader from the same village as legendary Jayaprakash Narayan and former newspaper editor and author, I am sure he will discharge his duties according to the highest parliamentary tradition," said the Chief Minister.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
