Opposition BJP today intensified its demand to remove Sam Pitroda from the post of Odisha government's techincal advisor.
"There is no point in keeping Pitroda as the technical advisor of the state govenrment after his appointment as the chairman of Congress's overseas department," BJP spokesman Sajan Sharma told reporters here.
Pitroda enjoys the status of a cabinet rank minister as technical advisior to Odisha government. He has, however, not availed any facilities and takes a token salary of Re 1 a month.
Claiming that BJP's earlier allegation that there exists a "nexus" between the BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and AICC president Sonia Gandhi through Sam Pitroda has now been vindicated, Sharma said "Pitroda should immediately removed from the Cabinet rank."
The BJP state vice-president Samir Mohanty also alleged that Pitroda was involved in the National Herald case.
"There should be no doubt over the existence of nexus betwen the ruling BJD and opposition Congress in the state which is not a good sign for the people," he said adding that BJP would further intensify its agitation till the removal of Pitroda.
The BJP leaders claimed that the people of Odisha have always suffered due to such alliances between the ruling party and the opposition.
"It is wrong to say that the ruling BJD is maintaining equal distance from both Congress and BJP. We can claim that Naveenbabu has been maintaining zero distance with Congress and Sonia Gandhi," Sharma said.
Meanwhile, BJD spokesman Amar Prasad Satpathy said that Pitroda is a respected person with wide experience in telecom engineering and should not be
measured in political parameters.
Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said that the people in BJP should welcome Pitroda that the state is getting the service of such a "great" technocrat.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)