Sajanagad: Even though the ruling BJD has not yet made any announcement of nominees for the coming State Assembly elections, political observers see the chances of the party playing the women’s reservation card in the Nilagiri constituency and denying ticket to MLA Sukant Nayak.
Upset over this possibility, his supporters have decided to organise a massive rally March 12. They held a constituency-level emergency meeting of the party at NAC Kalyan Mandap here Saturday.
Nayak’s supporters said a woman leader who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 polls on the BJP ticket has joined BJD and she is likely to be fielded. Any attempt to deny ticket to Nayak is an injustice to the incumbent MLA, his supporters stressed.
MLA Nayak, BJD block president Gangadhar Mishra, youth leader Bijay Kumar Lenka, Luna Das, Suresh Shankhua and many other frontline leaders had a brainstorming session over the possibilities at the 3-hour-long meeting.
BJD supported sarpanchs and samiti members also expressed their views over the issue. They said that under the leadership of Nayak, Nilagiri has seen various developmental works in the last five years, thus strengthening the party base.
Some vested interests in the party have added a woman to the party and started lobbying for her ticket, they alleged. Resenting such a move, Nayak’s supporters have decided to put up a massive show of strength March 12. Over 10,000 party workers are expected to attend the rally.
After the meeting, some party workers said the atmosphere in Nilagiri is in favour of BJD, but if the state leadership takes a wrong decision to give party ticket to a party hopper, it will have disastrous consequences.
PNN