ROURKELA: The cup of woes of BJD appears to be overflowing in Birmitrapur ever since the ruling party announced former Congress leader Rohit Joseph Tirkey as its candidate for the Assembly seat.
On Sunday, a host of local influential BJD leaders resigned from the party protesting the candidature of Rohit, who is the son of four-time Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey. Those who quit the party included BJD’s Kuanrmunda block president Rajesh Hansdah, former Birmitrapur MLA Nihar Surin, three sitting panchayat samiti (PS) members Jogeswar Amat, Rajit Tirkey and Sanjay Lugun, former zilla parishad (ZP) member Nimanti Lugun, former PS vice-chairman SS Sahu and presidents of 20 gram panchayats.
Rajesh said the BJD leaders resigned at a meeting which was convened at Teliposh to warn the party high command of the consequences if parachute leader Rohit’s candidature is not withdrawn soon.
“The BJD leadership should correctly read the popular mood of grassroots workers. The resignation drive has been halted to allow time to the party seniors to rethink. After waiting for a couple of days, the drive against Rohit’s candidature would be carried out in the entire Assembly constituency and the damage would be irreparable for the BJD,” he warned.
Sources said the anti-Rohit sentiment is equally prevalent among BJD workers of Bisra and Nuagaon blocks and Birmitrapur municipality limits.
The most vocal among the BJD rebels is Maklu Ekka who unsuccessfully fought the 2019 election as the ruling party candidate. Maklu said he has not resigned from the party yet but is waiting for the high command to revoke its decision and select one of the 10 BJD aspirants.
“With hard work, we have taken BJD to the level of winning the seat for the first time, but all seems to be in vain. Throughout his political career, George abused Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and opposed the BJD government. It is unthinkable for us to work under George and his son,” he said. Former MLA Nihar Surin said Rohit did not work to strengthen the BJD but was given preference over many capable aspirants who toiled hard to build the party’s base in Birmitrapur.
George quit BJD in 2006 and joined Congress in 2018. He then resigned from Congress in 2022 and tried to return to BJD for almost two years. Facing opposition from local BJD, George finally made his son join the ruling party on April 4. The next day, BJD announced Rohit’s candidacy from Birmitrapur. Incidentally, Rohit had fought the 2019 election on a Congress ticket but lost to BJP’s Shankar Oram.
Rohit said BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has blessed him to be the party candidate. Everyone should come together for the victory of the party.
Political observers said as George has pan-Sundargarh reach, BJD is trying to use him as a gamble to garner more votes for its Lok Sabha candidate Dilip Tirkey.