Bhubaneswar, June 13 (IANS) Likening politicians using politics to amass wealth with rodents, senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik on Monday said such "rats" wrecking the party in Odisha from inside need to be shown the door.
"All political parties are now full of a bunch of people who view politics as a way of making money. These people have no other known sources of income or earning and have used politics to amass wealth. They have nothing to do with the party ideology or the spirit of public service and take all political decisions only out of greed," said Patnaik.
"Political parties needs to be purged of rats if they are to regain their role as institutions defined by ideology and the spirit of public service," said Patnaik, a former president of the Congress' Odisha unit.
Reacting to his statement, another senior Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray said there were no rats in the party and all party men are gentlemen.
"The Congress is a huge party guided by the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prasad Harichandan in the state. In my view there is not a single rat in the party," Routray said.