Congress aspirants protest rival leader’s induction into party

BHUBANESWAR: High drama unfolded at the Congress Bhawan on Monday after ticket aspirants for Jatni Assembly seat created a ruckus protesting induction of a person promoted by the son of senior leader Suresh Kumar Routray into the party.

Sources said Santosh Jena, a local leader of a rival political party, accompanied by Routray’s elder son Siddharth, was to be inducted into the party. However, the joining ceremony was cancelled after aspirants’ protest. Congress leaders, meanwhile, refrained from giving any statement in this regard.

Meanwhile, Routray senior remained unfazed by the show cause notice issued to him by the party for campaigning for his son and BJD candidate for Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat Manmath Routray. The senior leader claimed he has not sought votes for any other political party.

He said he had never attended any election rally or meeting of other political parties. Though his younger son Manmath is the BJD candidate for Bhubaneswar LS seat, he said he had not attended any of his campaign programmes in the constituency.

Stating that he has been attending different programmes in the constituency for the last 50 years, Routray said he never made any political speech in these events. “However, if someone asks whether he or she should vote for my son, my answer will be yes. But I will never campaign for BJD or its candidates,” he said, adding he is ready to accept any action by the party.

In a separate function, former BJD MLA from Keonjhar Subarna Naik and his wife former block chairman Pratibha Manjari Naik joined Congress.