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BJP ministers in Orissa will declare assets

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The Bharatiya Janata Party in Orissa has directed its ministers and members of legislative assembly to submit details of the properties owned by them to the party office in Bhubaneswar.

The BJP is a part of the ruling coalition in Orissa led by Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal.

The party's state unit president, Manmohan Samal, said a panel would soon come out with a time frame for its ministers and MLAs to declare their assets.

Samal, who released the list of new office-bearers of the BJP after he was elected president of the state unit for the second time recently, disclosed that a few ministers had already submitted a list of their properties and sources of income.

If the BJP manages to get its ministers to declare their assets, it would be a cause of great embarrassment to the BJD. For, Naveen Patnaik too, soon after assuming power, had made the same promise. None of his ministers have so far declared their properties.

"We are confident that our ministers and MLAs will declare their properties soon. We will keep our word," a senior BJP leader said.

BJD leaders, meanwhile, are keeping mum. "It is an internal matter of the BJP," said Jogeshwar Babu, a senior BJD leader.

The BJP has 40 MLAs in the Orissa Assembly and nine ministers in the Patnaik ministry. The party also has nine Lok Sabha members from Orissa.

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