Sajanagad: Ahead of the elections, the BJP received a major shot in its arm in Nilagiri Assembly constituency in Balasore Saturday when 3,226 BJD leaders and workers joined the saffron party in the presence of Union oil, petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, party’s MP nominee Pratap Chandra Sarangi and MLA candidate for Nilagiri Sukant Nayak.
The party organised its Vijay Sankalp Samavesh at Nilagiri stadium where over 20,000 party workers were present in the afternoon.
The BJP leaders lampooned the BJD government on issues like chit fund, mining scam, and irregularities in various schemes.
Speaking at the Samavesh, Pradhan said that Nilagiri was the first royal state in the country where monarchy first came crashing down after Independence.
“Nilagiri stands testimony to the glorious history about ‘Praja Andolan’. This is the soil of freedom fighters,” he observed.
Other BJP leaders like Gobinda Chandra Das, Madanmohan Datt, Sipra Bajpayee, Chandra Shekhar Nanda were present.
Frontline leaders quit BJD in Udala
Udala: Upset over ticket distribution, some frontline BJD leaders in Udala Assembly segment in Mayurbhanj resigned from the party Saturday.
There were several ticket aspirants from the party for the Udala seat, but former MLA Srinath Soren was given ticket in the last minute.
Vice president of the BJD’s district unit Manoj Kumar Mohanty, Udala block unit president Saroj Kumar Samal, Gopabandhnagar block unit president Pradip Kumar Upadhyaya, youth BJD president Dulala Soren and another frontline leader Swarup Mohapatra announced their resignation from the party at a press meet here Saturday.
They have sent their resignations to BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and the party’s district unit president.
They said they have long been looking after the organizational activities of the party, but the latter has let them down.
They also blamed Arun Sahu, the party observer of the party for the district, for negligence.