JAGATSINGHPUR: Grappling with internal rife ahead of the three-tier panchayat elections, the district unit of BJD has turned to the Bhagavad Gita and 'prasad' of different deities to prevent defections of disgruntled party workers and leaders.
The ruling party MLAs are reportedly making warring rural leaders to swear on 'prasad' and the holy book in the hope of keeping BJD cadres together. The BJD is battling factionalism in different panchayats over selection of candidates for the rural polls.
Intra-party conflict has emerged in most of the panchayats in Tirtol, Naugaon, Jagatsinghpur, Balikuda, Erasama, Raghunathpur, Kujang and Biridi blocks.
For instance, the BJD unit in Mallasahi panchayat of Kujang had split into two groups since the last two rural polls. The ruling party backed sarpanch candidate Tamasarani Nayak had lost the election reportedly due to non-cooperation by the panchayat samiti member nominee Pravati Das who emerged victorious in the polls.
This time, Tamasarani's husband Dhruba Charan Nayak is the sarpanch candidate of BJD while Pravati has been retained as PS member nominee. On Thursday, Dhruba and Pravati along with the supporters touched 'prasad' of Loknath temple and swore to bury their differences and fight the election unitedly.
Confirming the incident, Dhruba said, "Last time, my wife was defeated due to factionalism in the party. So, both the warring groups were made to take oath on the 'prasad' to fight the elections unitedly." However, many BJD leaders are resenting the party’s method to keep its house in order.
Surendra Biswal, a BJD leader of Apandra panchayat, has refused a diktat from Balikuda-Erasama MLA and Water Resources Minister Raghunandan Das to touch 'Mahaprasad' of Lord Jagannath to support the candidates selected by the party. Similarly, another leader Amiya Sahoo of Khalgaon panchayat termed the the Minister's direction as undemocratic.
Last Sunday, secretary of the district unit of Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) Biswajit Das resigned from his post protesting the directive of Tirtol MLA Bijaya Sankar Das to swear on Bhagavad Gita to not oppose the candidates selected by the party. "This proves that the MLA has no faith on party workers," the BJYD leader had stated in his resignation letter.