BHUBANESWAR : Even as discontentment over denial of tickets and replacement of candidates has become a grave concern for BJD, the party on Monday appointed two leaders to organisational posts.
While sitting MLA from Nimapara, Samir Ranjan Dash has been appointed as an observer for Dhenkanal Parliamentary seat, Arundhati Kumari Devi, wife of Nitesh Ganga Deb, Sambalpur MP of BJP was announced as a general secretary of the party.
Dash, a three-time MLA from Nimapara, was denied ticket by the party for the upcoming Assembly election. The party had nominated Dilip Nayak who had quit BJP and joined BJD only on April 4 after he was denied a ticket from the Assembly segment. There was widespread discontentment among a section of BJD in Nimapara following the development prompting Dash to announce he is yet to decide on his next course of action.
Supporters of Dash were putting pressure on him to file his nomination as an Independent. Sources said that by appointing Dash as an observer for Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat, BJD has tried to placate him. However, Dash was unavailable for his comments on the development.
Similarly, Arundhati was announced BJD’s candidate for the Deogarh Assembly seat and she had also started campaigning. Arundhati had joined BJD recently along with her son and had met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Naveen Niwas. However, there was large-scale resentment within the party over her candidature.
Sources said BJD was forced to change her candidature as local leaders were not in a mood to accept her. There was a strong possibility that the resentment of local leaders would have affected the performance of the party in Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat from where its organisational secretary is pitted against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The party had replaced Arundhanti with Romancha Ranjan Biswal who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Assembly election against Subash Panigrahi of BJP. The saffron party has renominated Panigrahi this time.