More MPs hint at quitting BJD

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Bhubaneswar: More Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MPs Tuesday hinted at quitting the party in the wake of the denial of tickets to them. The BJD issued its first list of candidates for nine Lok Sabha and 54 MLA seats, Monday. As soon as the list was made public, murmurs of protests were heard from within the party. Some have already left the party while some others have started publicly speaking against the party leadership.
Dissent is likely to exacerbate in the ruling party which has been in power in the state since 2000. After it announced the first list Monday, royal scions and sitting MPs Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh (Kandhamal) and Arka Keshari Deo (Kalahandi) raised a banner of revolt against the party leadership and threatened to quit it.
The BJD announced to field Rajya Sabha member Achyuta Samanta and MLA Puspendra Singh Deo in place of Pratyusha and Arka Keshari respectively. However, the decision has not gone down well with the incumbent MPs who have since threatened to quit the party, if their cases are not favourably considered.
Pratyusha said if the party does not give her a ticket for the Nayagarh Assembly seat, she will fight the poll either from other party or as an independent candidate.
“I want to contest from Nayagarh Assembly constituency. If the party (BJD) denies a ticket to me, I will contest as an independent or from any other party,” she threatened.
Pratyusha’s demand raised more eyebrows as Nayagarh Assembly seat is represented by BJD leader Arun Sahoo– one of the BJD triumvirate of Pranab Prakash Das and Sanjay Das Burma.
Arka Keshari said, “It was shocking and disheartening to hear the news on television. We have laboured tirelessly for last five years. The BJD had no presence in Kalahandi, but we won five MLA seats in the district, along with representatives in NACs and the Zilla Parishad. We could have been notified prior to the announcement of the candidates’ list. I am in shock.”
Alleging that the BJD leadership has given tickets to anti-party people and new entrants, the Kalahandi MP said, “I have sent a letter to party chief seeking an explanation. It’s for the party to decide,” he added.
Meanwhile, a few other BJD leaders resigned from the party. Expressing displeasure over denial of a ticket, ex-MLA K Narayan Rao (Paralakhemundi) resigned from the BJD Tuesday.
Supporters of Rao openly protested the party’s decision to field Kalyani Gajapathi. Supporters of the BJD leader staged a demonstration and burnt party posters and banners. Rao was elected to Assembly from Paralakhemundi constituency in 2009 but lost the election in 2014 with a small margin of around 2,000 votes to Congress’s K Surya Rao.
Similarly, BJD leader Kusum Tete (Sundargarh) resigned from the party. Tete had recently resigned as the chairman of Sundargarh Special Development Council with a hope that she would be given an MLA ticket. But, the party has projected former Congress MLA Jogesh Singh for the seat.
Announcing her resignation here, she said, “I worked like a ‘servant’ for last five years as per the directives of the party leadership. But, I received nothing. The CM had even promised to field women candidates at 33 per cent of seats which has turned out to be false. I am extremely sad to resign from the party.”