ROURKELA: In efforts to strengthen its base in the Sundargarh Parliamentary constituency, the ruling BJD has yet again reverted to creation of two organisational districts within it. Rourkela MLA and Sundargarh District Planning Committee Chairman Sarada Prasad Nayak was named BJD’s Rourkela organisational district president two days back. He will be in charge of Rourkela, RN Pali, Bonai and Birmitrapur Assembly constituencies.
Similarly, Sundargarh Special Development Council (SDC) Chairman Binay Toppo has been appointed the president of the Sundargarh organisational district and he will look into Sundargarh, Talsara and Rajgangpur Assembly segments. Nayak was sidelined in the party after 2012. In absence of a worthy alternative, he was given BJD nomination in 2014 Assembly poll, but he lost to BJP’s Dilip Ray. However, he regained the Rourkela segment in 2014.
BJD insiders informed, for the first time in 2004 the Rourkela and RN Pali Assembly segments were separated from the unitary BJD organisational district, but no separate district was announced then.
In 2010, two organisational districts were announced following Nayak’s advice and the arrangement continued till 2017. But the next year, a single organisational district was again announced for Sundargarh district with then Rajgangpur MLA and former minister Mangla Kisan being made the president and Nayak the working president.
Nayak said Sundargarh is a large district and with single organisational unit, the party leaders were facing difficulties. “Formation of two organisational districts would give more responsibilities to local leaders and the party would be able to effectively take the popular programmes of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD Government to people”, he said.
Political observers said the new arrangement appears to have curtailed aging Kisan’s role in the district after he failed to retain his Rajgangpur Assembly seat in 2019, while BJD under his leadership lost five of the seven Assembly seats and the Sundargarh Parliamentary Constituency. However, Kisan is likely to be inducted in BJD’s State Council.Toppo, who was denied BJD ticket in 2019 from Talsara, was first rehabilitated as SDC Chairman and the President post came as added bonanza.