Berhampur: The rift in Ganjam district Congress came is out in the open with the leaders speaking in different voices when the party is busy for the three-tier panchayat polls, a report said.
This came to the fore when district observer and OPCC vice-president Sibananda Ray visited the Silk city Tuesday. Hurt over the development, Ray decided to stop campaigning for the party candidates and return to Bhubaneswar.
This has triggered a buzz in the political circles with the party drawing sharp criticisms from people and party sympathizers alike. On the other hand, elections to various municipalities, notified area councils and municipal corporations will be held after the announcement of the results for the panchayat polls.
However, the grand old party turning into a divided house has sparked serious concerns among the senior leaders and policy makers of the party. The rift was apparent as Sujay Acharya, the president of the city Congress and his supporters were prevented from entering Bapujee Ashram, the district Congress office here.
As Ray reached the party office in Berhampur, there was nobody to welcome him. Later, a district vice-president and some workers reached the office. Acharya had invited Ray for campaigning. However, some district office bearers prevented Acharya from entering the party office.
Deeply hurt over the development, Ray left the place and went to the Baulajholi farmhouse of Ramesh Jena, the district Congress president at Kukudakhandi.
Maheswar Patra, district vice-president of BJP, said the decision to deny Acharya to enter the party office has been taken on the order of the district president due to leakage of party’s internal matter. Efforts to contact Jena to get his response on the issue proved unsuccessful.
Reports said the Congress party has fielded candidates in 67 zones out of 69 Zilla Parishad zones in the district. While the ruling BJD and opposition BJP have intensified their campaign and making every effort to grab maximum number of seats, the grand old party is lagging behind in every sphere of campaign.
Former district Congress president Trinath Behera, district president of INTUC Pitabas Panda, trade union leader Bhokali Sethy and other leaders have stayed away from the campaigning as they have not been invited.
There are several issues to corner the Centre and state government but the party leaders have failed to capitalise on them. The party had fielded candidates in all the 69 zones in the 2017 panchayat polls but won only one zone under Kukudakhandi block.
The elected ZP member Brundaban Khatei is also not campaigning. As a result, the Congress votes will go to BJD and BJP in this election, political observers said. The party is likely meet the same fate in the municipal polls if there is no change in the situation.