Bhubaneswar: As discontent over denial of tickets and replacement of candidates has become a matter of serious concern for the BJD, the party on Monday appointed two leaders to organizational posts.
Sitting Nimapara MLA Sameer Ranjan Dash has been appointed observer for the Dhenkanal parliamentary seat, while Arundhati Kumari Devi, wife of BJP’s Sambalpur MP Nitish Ganga Deb, has been declared the party’s general secretary.
The party had refused to give ticket to Dash, a three-time MLA from Nimapara, for the upcoming assembly elections. The party had fielded Dilip Nayak, who had left the BJP and joined BJD on April 4 after not getting a ticket from the assembly constituency. There was widespread discontent among a section of the BJD in Nimapara following this development, following which Dash announced that he had not yet decided on his next move.
Dash’s supporters were pressurizing him to file independent nomination. Sources said the BJD has tried to satisfy Das by appointing him as an observer for the Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat. However, Dash was not available for its comments on the development.
Similarly, Arundhati was declared BJD candidate for Deogarh assembly seat and she also started campaigning. Arundhati had recently joined BJD along with her son and met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas. However, there was widespread resentment within the party regarding his candidature.
Sources said BJD was forced to change his candidature as local leaders were in no mood to accept him. There was a strong possibility that the resentment of local leaders might have affected the party’s performance in the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, from where its organizational secretary has been pitted against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The party had fielded Romancha Ranjan Biswal in place of Arundhati, who had contested the 2019 assembly elections against BJP’s Subhash Panigrahi, but was unsuccessful. This time the saffron party has again made Panigrahi its candidate.
