BHUBANESWAR:In the changed circumstances following severe reverses of the party in Zilla Parishad (ZP) polls and speculation of a split in BJD doing the rounds in political circles here, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday interacted with party’s elected panchayat representatives and discussed development issues with them.
Naveen met elected members of different panchayats from Jajpur and Koraput districts separately. This is for the first time that the Chief Minister undertook such an exercise to get closer to the grassroots workers of the party.
The meeting took place in the party headquarters instead of Navin Nivas, which has been the venue for interactions with party leaders on earlier occasions. The Chief Minister told mediapersons that the panchayat representatives gave suggestions and raised demands to be fulfilled for the benefit of people in their areas. “I have also asked them to work honestly and hard for the people,” he said.
The exercise will continue in the coming days and the Chief Minister will meet elected representatives of other districts in a phased manner. Besides meeting the panchayat representatives, he also reviewed the performance of the party in the polls in these two districts with the party leaders.
Though BJD won 33 ZP zones out of 39 in Jajpur district, the BJP made an entry by winning six seats. However, in election to Panchayat Samiti chairperson, the BJD supported candidates won in eight out of 10 blocks in the district while nominees supported by Congress and Independents won one each.
BJD won 24 out of 29 seats in Koraput district in the ZP polls while Congress and BJP won four and one zone respectively. Congress performance improved in the panchayat samiti chairperson polls with the party winning six out of 14 blocks while BJD won eight.
On Monday, the Chief Minister will meet the panchayat representatives from Mayurbhanj district where the BJD was almost wiped out in the elections. The party could win in only five ZP zones out of 54 while 49 seats went to BJP. JMM and others won one seat each.
However, situation went in favour of BJD in the panchayat samiti chairperson polls in which candidates supported by the party won the post in 20 out 26 blocks while BJP and JMM supported nominees won in five and one blocks respectively.
BJD MLA from Badachana and party spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy said the CM asked the panchayat representatives to remain in close contact with the people who elected them and make them aware about the welfare schemes launched by the State Government for their benefit. He also asked them to work in a transparent manner, Satpathy said.
Besides the elected panchayat representatives of Jajpur and Koraput, Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Arun Sahu, party spokesperson Suryanarayan Patro, MLAs, MPs and senior leaders were also present. The next review meeting will be held after six months.