BHUBANESWAR: Science and Technology Minister Ashok Chandra Panda’s announcement of Shreemayee Mishra as a possible candidate of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency has created a flutter within the party itself.
Panda reportedly made the statement during the ‘Jana Sampark Padayatra’ of the party in Ekamra Assembly seat recently. However, he retracted it on Saturday as it turned into a controversy.
The minister said Mishra is attending a lot of programmes in the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency. “I urged people to support her and make her victorious in her endeavour to keep the prestige of the chief minister. My statement has been twisted,” he said. However, the issue has brought to the fore differences within the BJD over who should be the Lok Sabha candidate to challenge sitting BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi. BJD vice-president and former MP from Bhubaneswar Prasanna Patsani said the party will never make such a mistake.
Patsani said if a candidate is with the people, he/she is never defeated. “Had the party given me a ticket in 2019, I would have won the election. I was never defeated,” he said adding, if the BJD has taken a decision to field Mishra, it is good. “But I believe the party will never make such a mistake again. Everybody knows what happened last time,” he said. Sources in BJD said ticket for the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat is yet to be decided though Mishra seems to have emerged as a frontrunner.