ALBANY – Gov. Cuomo should scrap construction of an upstate power plant cited in a sweeping federal corruption probe to maintain his own integrity, says former Ohio congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

If Cuomo doesn’t stop the project by Competitive Power Ventures “it would raise troubling questions about complicity,” said Kucinich, who has joined residents who oppose the planned 650-megawatt plant in Wawayanda, about 75 miles northwest of New York City.

“The people of New York had to go to someone from Ohio to get someone to speak up, and I could smell corruption,” he said.

“The governor must attempt to salvage public trust by canceling the permits and halting construction of the thoroughly corrupted CPV Hudson Valley project….The governor’s right hand man was for sale. Did the left hand not know what the right hand was doing?”

Kucinich said the project, which has already begun with clear-cutting and paving of the site, is the “fruit of a poison tree.”

Former Cuomo aide and close confidante Joseph Percoco has been accused of taking bribes to push the project with state officials.

The project includes pipes to carry gas fracked from other states.

Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.