BHUBANESWAR: The BJP seems to be grappling with serious dissent and disaffection of cadre and workers over selection of candidates for several Assembly seats in the state.
Nomination of Saroj Kumar Padhi from Aska, Nayan Kishore Mohanty from Cuttack, Sitansu Sekhar Mohapatra from Bhadrak, Rajendra Das from Soro and Raghav Mallick from Daspalla constituencies have raised hackles within the party organisation.
Padhi has been trying his luck from Aska Assembly constituency since 1995 and was elected from the seat in 2004 as an Independent. He lost badly in the 2009 elections as an Independent and 2014 poll as a Congress nominee. Padhi was in the race for a BJP ticket in 2019 but the party dumped him at the last moment to nominate Debraj Mohanty.
“The BJP has little chance of winning Aska seat which is a BJD fortress. With BJD renominating its sitting MLA Manjula Swain, it will be a cakewalk for the regional party as Padhi will be no match for her,” sources in BJP said.
Nomination of Sitansu Mohapatra from Bhadrak was another surprise as he does not belong to the party. The party was also in negotiations with five-time MLA and former minister Jugal Kishore Pattanaik to draft in his son Asit Pattanaik for the seat.
“Sitansu’s candidature was announced when the cadre were confident of the nomination of Hemant Padhi, the former district president of the party. A businessman, Hemant has spent his prime in the party and is most acceptable to the workers,” said a BJP leader in charge of the district.
Similarly, party sources said the nomination of Rajendra Das from Soro has also hassled the local BJP organisation as he has nothing to do with the constituency. A resident of Dhamnagar, Das was elected from the constituency on a BJD ticket in 2009.
He was denied ticket by the regional party in 2014 and had rebelled when the party denied him a ticket for the by-election to Dhamnagar in 2022 necessitated by the death of sitting BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi.
Though the BJP has never won Daspalla seat even during its alliance with BJD, the candidate nominated from the constituency Raghav Mallick this time is considered too weak against sitting BJD MLA Ramesh Chandra Behera.
Party insiders feel Achyuta Samanta, BJD’s nominee for Kandhamal parliamentary constituency, will take maximum lead from Daspalla Assembly segment.