Hours after some BJD leaders including Sasmit Patra, MLA Souvik Biswal, and Ananta Jena shared a post on social media praising Jajpur MLA and BJD’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das for his 'one family one ticket' stance, Pranab Prakash Das' brother-in-law and actor Arindam Roy, who quit the BJD and joined the BJP, responded on the matter.
Speaking to OTV, Roy said, "As long as I stayed with the BJD, I worked with dedication. I always thought of the party. If some people will benefit after I quit the party, I am happy.”
He also added that many leaders have got tickets four times, but he was not given a ticket even once.
“Had my father been an MLA, I am 90 per cent sure I would have got a ticket. But I was told that two tickets can't be given to a single family,” he said.
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Roy also said that if my relation is being cited as my ineligibility to get a ticket, then I know of a similar relationship and in that case, a ticket should also not be granted as well.
Notably, the post shared by the BJD leaders read, “Pranab is such leader who gives importance to workers than his family. There was no problem for him to allot tickets to multiple family members. However, he chose to set a trend of one ticket per family.”
(Report by Swadhin Rout)