Berhampur: With intense factional war gripping the saffron party in Ganjam district, the proposed mega public outreach campaign by the BJP has been hit by roadblocks, sources informed Friday. Such is the infighting that the BJP is yet to start its various programmes including the much-vaunted ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan Padayatra’. The BJP has two separate units for better functioning of the organisation in Ganjam district and implementation of its programmes. One of them is the Ghumusar unit comprising Khallikote, Kabisuryanagar, Polsara, Hinjilicut, Aska, Sorada and Sanakhemundi Assembly segments.
All these come under the Aska Lok Sabha constituency. The second one is the Ganjam unit which includes Berhampur, Chhatrapur, Gopalpur, Digapahandi and Chikiti Assembly segments under the Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency. The Bhanjanagar Assembly segment has been excluded from these two units as it comes under the Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency. Sources said that the executive committee meeting of the Ganjam unit was held here, May 23. In the meeting it was decided to undertake the ‘Padayatra’ in every zone (Mandal) and inform the people about the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nine years of governance and the various welfare schemes launched by the Centre. It was decided that leaders and party workers will conduct door-todoor visits to highlight the failures of the BJD government in Odisha. A decision was taken to start the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’ from May 30 which would continue for a month.
However, the programme received a setback when the bitter infighting within the party was exposed during the visit of state unit president Manmohan Samal to the Silk City. Samal visited Ward No-27 in Gosani Nuagaon locality along with district chief Bibhuti Jena. However, sources said that Jena was sprayed with ink by a section of the party workers dissatisfied with him. The end result was that the outreach programme failed to take off May 30. BJP workers are now unsure as to when the ‘Padayatra’ will begin. Former district president and BJP’s candidate from the Berhampur Assembly segment in the last state elections, Kanhu Charan Pati said the party has been affected by factionalism. He said demands have been made before the state unit to expel the mastermind behind the Gosani Nuagaon incident.
Some BJP workers, on the other hand, have gone to the extent of criticising Modi who praised the Odisha government under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the way it handled the Balasore train mishap. They said that when Modi is lauding the BJD government, the BJP workers are not in a position to criticise it. Sources also pointed out that a sizeable number of workers are also not showing any inclination to participate in the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’. A similar situation is being observed with workers in the Ghumusar unit. Three days back a ‘Padayatra’ was taken out in Aska, Sorada and some other localities, but the attendance was very poor. Neither any Union Minister nor any statelevel leader participated in it. Such was the attendance that the programme started well after its scheduled time.
With the general and the Assembly elections scheduled for next year, the time is very short for the saffron party to resolve internal differences. Unless it does so, it will provide the BJD an easy platform to establish its supremacy in the district, the sources added.