Two senior Gajapati BJP leaders cross over to BJD

Berhampur: Ahead of the three-tier panchayat elections, the BJP in Gajapati district received a major setback, as the party’s two leaders, including the zilla parishad president joined in the ruling BJD.
While Anita Rani Behera, present ZP president joined the regional party at a meeting organised in Mohana on Wednesday, G.Venkat Ravana, former district president of BJP, joined the ruling party along with his supporters on Tuesday.
“Impressed by the development works undertaken by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik, I decided to join the ruling party,” said Anita. She also criticised the saffron party allegedly neglecting her even though she was the ZP president.
The BJP district unit said their departure from the party would not affect the party organisation. Local people are against her as she was not with the people after being elected as ZP president in 2017, said Bhrugu Boxipatra, BJP’s general secretary.
BJD said the party would be strengthened in Gajapati with the joining of Anita and Venkat Ravana. “We welcomed them,” said Sahu, who was present in the meeting along with the party’s general secretary Manas Mangaraj and MLA (Berhampur) Bikram Panda at Mohana.
In the last panchayat election, the BJP formed the ZP in Gajapati district, even though the saffron party failed to get the majority. While BJD won eight seats in the 14-member ZP, the Congress and BJP shared four seats each. ZP president was reserved for the woman (Scheduled Caste).
As Anita was the only candidate belonging to the woman (SC) elected in BJP, she became the ZP president. In the last assembly election in 2019, the Congress and BJP shared two seats, while BJD failed to win any seat in the district.