Sambalpur: Even though the elections are over in the state, the political atmosphere in Western Odisha is still tense as the chairperson seat of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) is still lying vacant.
Sources said the tenure of WODC chief and that of Sambalpur district Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president will end June 18. So, the leaders of various political parties are engaged in doing political arithmetic to grab the WODC chairperson post.
Hectic lobbying is also going on to gain more support for prospective candidates for the district BJD president post, sources said. Amidst heavy competition, political heavyweights and ministers are trying to squeeze in their candidates for these positions.
The ruling party BJD has decided to put up a woman candidate for WODC chairperson’s post, sources added. The names of leaders like— the 2014 Lok Sabha candidate of Sundargarh Sunita Biswal, former MLA of Sambalpur Raseswari Panigrahi, former state commissioner of Bolangir district Jyoti Panigrahi and president of Mahila Nigam Srimayee Mishra are doing the rounds.
Among the four, Raseswari comes from a political family. She is a renowned doctor and had started her political journey from the 2014 Assembly election. She had won the Sambalpur Assembly seat against Bharatiya Janata Party’s former minister Jay Narayan Mishra.
Sunita Biswal, the 2019 Sundargarh MP candidate from BJD, is the daughter of former CM Hemananda Biswal. It may be mentioned here that former Health Minister Nabakishore Das had lent huge support to Sunita as an MP candidate. Sunita has a large following in the area too, sources said.
Jyoti Panigrahi had stood successfully on her responsibility as a women commissioner in the district. She has been working for the party for long.
Srimayi Mishra is known as a social worker in the area. She has worked as the women coordinator of BJD. So, there is a chance that the party may give her the WODC position.
However, if BJD decides on a male candidate, then the names of Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo of Bolangir, Subash Chouhan of Bargarh and Anup Sai of Brajrajnagar come first.
PNN