BHUBANESWAR: Presence of a large number of rebel candidates has emerged a big headache for the ruling BJD which is now busy persuading them to withdraw from the fray.
The discomfiture of the ruling party has become acute in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) as it has denied tickets to around 30 former corporators of whom, around 20 have filed nomination papers as Independents. The situation in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) and other ULBs is no different. Some rebel candidates of BMC, though, have already agreed to withdraw their nomination papers.
President of the Cuttack district BJD Debasis Samantray said that there were around 10 rebel candidates of the party in different wards of the CMC. “Three of them have already joined the Congress and the party is not bothered about them,” he said and added that three others have agreed to withdraw their nominations.
He informed that the rest of the rebel candidates will withdraw papers by March 14, the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers.
BJD rebels have filed their nomination papers in at least five wards of the BeMC and efforts are on to persuade them to withdraw. Besides, presence of rebels in many other municipalities and notified area councils (NACs) have added to the problem of BJD. Observers and party MLAs have been asked to ensure that all rebels withdraw their nomination papers in time.
Sources said that though an exact calculation has not been done at the State-level about the total number of rebels, every ULB - big or small - has at least a couple of such candidates.
The total number of rebels will be more than 200 and steps have been initiated to reach out to them in a bid to persuade/force them to withdraw or at least neutralise their effect on the party’s performance.