The BJP state unit on Monday raked up the 15-year-old Swami Laxmanananda murder case on the day the first phase polling was held in Odisha.

Besides, they raised concerns about the demolition of mutts in the name of beautification around the Puri Shree Jagannath temple under the Parikrama project.

In the first phase, election was held in four Lok Sabha constituencies and 28 Assembly segments under these Lok Sabha seats.

The party on Monday talked about collective leadership that it aims to provide to the state. On the other hand, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) dared the BJP to declare its chief ministerial candidate first and refrain from hurling abuses at the chief minister.

BJP leader Pratap Sarangi, the party’s candidate for the Balasore Lok Sabha seat, said a big conspiracy had been hatched to kill the Swami and his four disciples on August 23, 2008. “The security guards were withdrawn at the time of the killing. Swamiji was the centre of Hindu sentiment. Sanyasi was murdered. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik was to be blamed for this.”

Sarangi was a part of the BJP’s top leadership that addressed a press conference. Those who attended the press conference were Union minister and Lok Sabha candidate for Sambalpur Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha candidate Aparajita Sarangi, Kendrapara’s Lok Sabha candidate Baijayant Panda aka Jay Panda and party’s state chief Manmohan Samal.

Both Sarangi and Panda targeted the chief minister’s close aide, V.K. Pandian. “Someone is controlling the chief minister like a puppet and using Artificial Intelligence generated deepfake videos. It has hurt us the most.”