JAJPUR: Resentment among BJD workers over distribution of party tickets has gained strength in Bari, Korei and Barachana Assembly segments of the district.
Though the party has denied tickets to the sitting MLAs of Korei and Bari, it has renominated Barachana legislator Amar Prasad Satpathy from the seat.
Supporters of Bari legislator Debasish Nayak have been opposing the candidature of block chairperson Sunanda Das from the segment. It is speculated that the rebels may field a candidate to contest the elections as an independent. Sunanda, who was in BJP, left the saffron party and joined BJD on Monday morning and got the party ticket in the evening.
Opposing Satpathy’s candidature from Barachana Assembly seat, several party workers and leaders including two former chairpersons of Barachana block organized a meeting near Chandikhole to decide their future course of action. The rebels may vote against Satpathy to teach him a lesson in the ensuing polls, said sources.
Korei MLA Akash Das Nayak and Jajpur MP Rita Tarei too have been denied ticket by the party. Though Tarei has not left BJD, she is unhappy after being denied a renomination from the Parliamentary constituency. Now, all eyes are on the rebels and their future course of action.
The Congress is also facing the heat from rebels in Dharmasala and Bari Assembly constituencies. The grand old party has fielded fresh faces from both the seats. Disappointed over distribution of ticket, the aspirants and their supporters are annoyed and may hamper the party’s prospects. Hundreds of Congress workers led by ticket aspirant from Dharmasala Kisan Panda staged demonstration at Jaraka Bazaar on Thursday after the party named Smrutirekha Pahi as its candidate for the Assembly segment.
“We are protesting the party’s decision to nominate Smrutirekha Pahi, who is an outsider, as its candidate for Dharmasala. We are demanding that she be replaced with a local,” said Panda.