Vishwa Hindu Parishad terms Naveen Patnaik as 'anti-Hindu'

Bhubaneshwar, Mar 9 (ANI): Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) President Ashok Singhal on Monday accused Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of being 'anti-Hindu' after his fallout with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.

Singhal said that Patnaik is 'anti-Hindu' and this is the reason for his fallout with BJP.

"I never expected him to act in this manner. I never expected that he would fool Hindus like this," said Singhal addressing a news conference here.

The BJP on Saturday withdrew support to Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) following breakdown of seat-sharing talks for the forthcoming state assembly and parliamentary elections. The BJP and BJD had jointly contested the 2004 polls.

Naveen Patnaik is to prove majority in the state assembly on March 11.

Orissa will hold a two-phase poll on April 16 and April 23 simultaneously for the 21 parliamentary seats and the 147 state assembly seats.

In the 147-member state assembly, BJD has 61 seats while BJP has 30. Congress party has 38 deputies and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has four.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the National Congress Party (NCP) have one each besides eight independents. (ANI)