Rourkela: In the last couple of days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha’s Rourkela has become proactive. The Rourkela unit of the party is trying to portray a united front as it protests and organises demonstrations against the huge liquor-related cash seizure in Bolangir, Boudh and Sundargarh.
At Biramitrpaur, MLA Shankar Oram, who had been almost dormant for the last five years, suddenly spurred into action Tuesday as he led a demonstration in front of the urban local body office.
“It is a good sign that the party took a united stance while demonstrating against the cash seizure. At least all the top leaders were together following the sarcastic rebuke by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” said a political analyst here Tuesday.
In fact, during his visit here recently Pradhan had advised both Nihar Ray, the BJP candidate from the Rourkela constituency in 2019 and state spokesperson Dhiren Senapati, a ticket aspirant this time, to work together.
The two are poles apart and the differences between them are no secret to the people here. The bitterness is so acute that they don’t even talk politely or sit close to each other during meetings.
“Differences will be there but should not affect the party. We are all working for the BJP, so we should put all our differences behind in the interest of the party,” a BJP worker said.
Senapati meanwhile is trying to play down the differences between him and Ray. “This was a party programme and I must assure you that BJP is never a divided house and it was reflected during the demonstration against the ‘cash recovery’,” Senapati said.
Ray however, initially did not comment. “We are always active and we organised the demonstration to raise the issue in public. This is our primary duty and we have done it on several occasions,” he later said. Ray asserted that the BJP will continue to raise issues on all platforms and work in unison. Ray also supported the demonstration organised by Oram.
“The MLA, as peoples’ representative, must attract the public’s attention to certain issues,” said Ray. He also quashed allegations that Oram had not been active in the past few years. “Had he not been active, how could Shankar bhai organise such a massive protest,” asked Ray.
Senapati also defended Oram. “He is the sitting MLA and he has always been active for the people of his constituency. He has always participated in all of BJP’s activities,” Senapati said.
PNN