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Internal bickering seems to be intensifying among the leaders of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha after the election debacle.
In such an incident, two BJD Corporators- Biranchi Narayan Mahasupakar and Bharat Lenka contested against each other in the election of a Standing Committee Chairman post of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
As per reports, Biranchi won the tough fight by a whisker with a margin of only one vote. In the process, he was elected as the Chairman of the Sanitation, Public Health and Electricity Standing Committee.
As per sources, both the leaders belong to two different factions of BJD. Earlier, leaders for the post were chosen on mutual discussion and understanding. However, after the change in government, the political equation in the BMC also seems to have changed.
“Two candidates were in the fray for the election. We are all together and we will take everyone in our stride. The other candidate should have withdrawn earlier. Election is always conducted on the basis of personality and not on anybody’s opinion. The right candidate has been elected and now there is no question of inner conflict within the party,” said Biranchi.
“The other candidate came to me and confessed his fault. He also repented that he should have withdrawn from the race earlier. He might have been asked by somebody to do so,” he added.
“The election has been conducted in a democratic way for the satisfaction of all,” said BMC Mayor Sulochana Das.
However, no reaction could be obtained from Bharat Lenka in this regard.
Double blow for BJD in CMC
BJD suffered a double blow in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) standing committee elections on Friday. The party lost two standing committee posts in the Cuttack civic body.
BJD’s ward-57 corporator Purnima Swain lost to BJP’s ward-51 Corporator Rakesh Swain in the election for the post of Establishment Committee Chairperson. While as many as four voters in the committee voted for BJP, BJD managed to garner only three votes.
Similarly, BJD’s ward-21 Corporator Ashok Sharma was defeated by an independent Corporator of ward-3 Pradeep Rout in the election for the post of Planning and Development Committee Chairperson.
