Badasahi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have announced names of their respective nominees for the Badasahi Assembly constituency (Mayurbhanj district) under the Balasore Lok Sabha constituency. But it has triggered consternation among the workers of both the parties.
The saffron party has fielded Sanatan Bijuli as its candidate, while the BJD has chosen Brundaban Das.
Sections of workers in both the parties have reacted strongly for giving berths to leaders who defected from other parties.
Opposing Bijul’s nomination for the seat and criticising the state leadership, four frontline BJP leaders, who were also ticket aspirants, have already left the party.
On the other hand, the BJD leader and former MLA Manoranjan Sethi has resigned from the party Friday in protest against Das’ nomination.
BJD leader Ganeswar Patra, who was elected as MLA in 2014, was also unhappy after being denied the party ticket. He has started thinking about his future course of action, if sources are to be believed.
Patra had deserted the Congress five years ago to join the BJD.
Surprisingly, the Congress has not yet announced the name of its candidate for the seat.
Leaders of the BJD and BJP have alleged that their parties have not picked up the right candidates. Angry over the issue, the ticket aspirants have made use of social media to vent their anger against their respective state leaderships.
Political analysts say that the political equation in the constituency many fast change due to rampant party hopping.
Brundaban Das, who is now the BJD MLA nominee, was earlier working as the treasurer of state BJP SC Morcha and was in-charge of the party’s Angul district SC Morcha.
As the BJP did not give him ticket, he resigned from the party and joined the BJD and secured the ticket.
Speculations are now doing the rounds about reason for denying a ticket to Ganeswar Patra.
In the last panchayat elections, the BJD fared badly in this constituency due to infighting. The BJD had to lose all the five Zilla Parishad seats here.
BJD workers have squarely blamed him for picking up unsuitable ZP candidates. The BJD state leadership ignored him and nominated another party leader for the seat, his opponents say.
When asked about to comment on the matter, Ganeswar chose to remain mum.
Congress worker Khageswar Nayak observed that leaders who have crossed over to other parties should not be brought back to the party fold.
On the other hand, BJD worker Karunakar Das said that there were many aspirants for the BJD ticket. But there is a rumbling of discontent among party workers for nominating a leader from another party.
PNN