BERHAMPUR: Even as the internal conflict in BJD paralyses service delivery in the silk city, a fight between two corporators of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) owing allegiance to the regional party reached the police on Sunday.
Corporator of Ward no-27 Nilakantha Sahu filed a complaint in Gosaninuagaon police station alleging that Durga Panda, husband of corporator of Ward no-14, threatened him of dire consequences. Fearing danger to his life, he has appealed to the police for immediate action.
Sahu claimed he had apprised the matter to the party high command but no steps were taken to settle the issue. Sources said Sahu and Panda have been asked to come to the police station for discussion.
While Berhampur mayor Sanghamitra Dalei said she was yet to receive any allegation in this regard, president of Ganjam BJD RC Chaupatnaik described the matter as personal and said steps are being taken to sort out the differences between the two corporators.
BJD runs the BeMC with absolute majority. Of the 42 Wards in BeMC, BJD boasts of 36 corporators while BJP has three, Congress one and Independents two. While one faction of BJD corporators is led by mayor Dalei and supported by Chaupatnaik, the other group owes allegiance to former Berhampur MLA Bikram Kumar Panda. Both the factions claim to have support of 26-27 BJD corporators.
Recently, 25 BJD corporators had openly opposed Dalei and BeMC commissioner B Mishra. They had even submitted a grievance letter addressed to the chief minister through Ganjam collector Dibya Jyoti Parida alleging illegal payment to a de-listed trust.
Following the incident, BJD president Naveen Patnaik had called all the 36 corporators of the party for a discussion last month to sort out the differences. But it reportedly failed to mend the rift in Ganjam BJD.