Discontent over Jagatsinghpur candidates puts BJD in a fix

Former Minister and sitting MLA Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray has been nominated from Paradip seat while district BJD unit president Bishnu Das has been fielded from Tirtol
Former Minister and sitting MLA Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray has been nominated from Paradip seat (File Photo | EPS)
Former Minister and sitting MLA Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray has been nominated from Paradip seat (File Photo | EPS)

JAGATSINGHPUR: Discontent over BJD’s selection of candidates in the four Assembly segments and one Lok Sabha seat of Jagatsinghpur has cast a shadow on the party’s prospects in the district. 
The party has announced the candidature of sitting Balikuda-Erasama MLA Prasant Muduli for Jagatsinghpur seat while Raghunandan Das, who had resigned from BJP has been fielded from Balikuda-Erasama seat. 

Similarly, former Minister and sitting MLA Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray has been nominated from Paradip seat while district BJD unit president Bishnu Das has been fielded from Tirtol. The sitting MLA of Tirtol Rajshree Mallick has been nominated from Jagatsinghpur Parliamentary constituency.  However, the choice of candidates has not gone down well with the party workers as protests have sprung up in various parts of the district.

Further, aspirants who were denied ticket have either decided to contest the polls as independent candidates or boycott the campaign process. Protesting Muduli’s candidature from Jagatsinghpur Assembly segment, hundreds of supporters of Amrendra Das staged road blockade and ransacked the party office in Naugaon and Jagatsinghpur. Das’ supporters and elected representatives of different panchayats also gheraoed the Chief Minister’s residence Naveen Niwas. 

A BJD leader SK Ansari Ali said denying ticket to Das was injustice. “We have decided to boycott the elections if the party supremo does not change his decision,” he said. In Tirtol, BJD leaders led by the party’s block president Basant Kumar Mohapatra are strongly opposing Mallick’s candidature from Jagatsinghpur Parliamentary constituency. Similarly, BJD rebels led by Raghunathpur block unit president Debasish Tripathy are up in arms against Bishnu Das, who has been fielded by the party from Tirtol Assembly segment. 

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