By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday said the country needs a non-NDA, non-UPA front.
“I certainly think there is a need for some sort of front against the thoroughly discredited and scam-ridden UPA, and on the other hand should I say a communal tainted NDA,” Patnaik told reporters here.
“You need a front which is both transparent, anti-corruption and of course secular,” he said.
Patnaik’s statement came a day after he spoke to the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and asked them to oppose the powers that are to be vested in the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).
Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is opposed to both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, its former ally, and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Patnaik also had discussed the matter with former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and sought his support.
Citing a recent memorandum of the union home ministry regarding the powers vested in the proposed NCTC, Patnaik Monday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a review of the matter.
Describing the move as “an infringement on the powers of the states”, Patnaik said the provisions have draconian overtones.