The BJD has done injustice to me by giving party ticket to the wife of a ganja peddler, alleged Anubhav Patnaik after resigning from the party. Patnaik on Friday filed his nominations as an independent candidate for the Khandapada Assembly seat.
Patnaik further alleged that the husband of the BJD candidate from Khandapada is also accused of the murder of former Khandapada block chairman Gurubari Kaunr.
“Since the formation of the BJD, I dedicatedly worked for the party under the leadership of my mother Bijaylaxmi Patnaik. I worked for the party for 27 years. Despite being denied a ticket in 2019, I supported the BJD candidate on the instruction of CM Naveen Patnaik. Unfortunately, the winning candidate did not visit Khandapada and work for the development and people,” said Patnaik.
According to Patnaik, he worked to strengthen the party’s organisation for the last five years as well and thought he would be given an opportunity to serve people. But this time also injustice was done to him as ticket was given to the wife of a person who has warrant for illegal ganja trade and murder case, he said.
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“In 2004, a Ganja trader was given ticket by BJD to contest election from Khandapada and lost the election. Similarly, in the last election, a person from outside was allowed to contest from Khadapada but he did not do anything for the people of the region,” said Patnaik while announcing to contest the elections as an independent candidate.
Meanwhile, the BJD leaders or the Khadapada candidate could not be contacted over Patnaik’s allegations. Anubhav was elected to the Assembly with a BJD ticket from Khandapada in 2014, but the BJD fielded Soumya Ranjan Patnaik from the constituency in 2019. This time, BJD has named Sabitri Pradhan as the party’s candidate from Khandapada Assembly seat. BJD’s Khandapada candidate Sabitri is the chairperson of Bhapur block.