Bhubaneswar: Even as a day was left for the first phase of election to begin, resignations and party hopping continued unabated in the state. Pradesh Mahila Congress president Sumitra Jena resigned from the party and joined the BJD while former BJD legislator Rabi Narayan Pani joined the saffron camp, Tuesday.
Briefing the media here, Jena blamed the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik for her resignation. “It was unbearable for me to tolerate the utter callousness and apathy of the PCC president towards women,” she said.
The Congress leader had reportedly recommended names of 52 women candidates for the poll. However, most of them were overlooked during ticket distribution. She had recommended women candidates for eight Lok Sabha and 44 Assembly seats. But the OPCC president picked less than five per cent of the women candidates.
“When I asked him why he ignored the names, he just ignored my concern, saying the party needs capable candidates to contest the polls. Now, I want him to explain the criteria and the parameters used in the selection of candidates,” she pointed out.
Slamming Niranjan and his son, the Congress leader said the father-son duo gave tickets to businessmen who have money. “Here, the winnability of the candidates which he had claimed was the only criterion, took a backseat,” she said. However, Niranjan has not given any satisfactory reaction on this issue.
Meanwhile, former Pallahara MLA Rabi Narayan Pani, who quit the BJD recently, formally joined the BJP here Tuesday.