Rift in BJD's Cuttack unit deepens over Banki MLA holding review meeting 

The fissure in the Cuttack BJD appears to be widening as the corporators of the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency have ganged up against Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy for him holding a review meeting of the party’s poll debacle in their constituency. 

They questioned how the Banki MLA conducted the review meeting of the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency with the party’s candidate, district president and corporators of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) not being present. 

They said they would take it up with the party Supremo. 

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“He (MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy) shouldn’t have been entrusted with reviewing the poll debacle in the Barabati-Cuttack constituency.  As he is the MLA of Banki, he can review the poll results of the Banki Assembly constituency. Constitutionally, the candidate who lost the election in the Barabati-Cuttack constituency, town president and district president can review the poll result of the Barabati-Cuttack constituency. Even if he conducted it, it is not appropriate to blame us by holding it in advance,” said Bikash Behera, a BJD corporator of the CMC. 

“In the review meeting, there should have been the district president Debashish Bhai (Debashish Samantaray), candidate Prakash Bhai (Prakash Behera) and corporators. His being the MLA of Banki is not an issue. The issue is we were not invited to the meeting,” said Itishree Dash, a BJD corporator of CMC. 

Notably, some days ago, a review meeting on the poll debacle in the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency was held at the residence of Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy. It is learnt that the corporations and the selection of candidates were blamed for the party’s drubbing in the election. 

No reactions were received from Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy or the BJD.