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Bhubaneswar: The Opposition-BJP and Congress in Odisha have termed Biju Janata Dal (BJD)'s plan to organise sports tournaments from panchayat to district levels in the State as a political gimmick before the panchayat polls.
While political experts view it as a bid by the ruling party to strengthen its loosening base among youths and students, the BJD, however, has called the event as an exercise to discover hidden sporting talents.
The BJD on Saturday unveiled the logo of the programme and finalised the blueprint to organise cricket and football premier leagues in panchayat, block and district level.
"The Chief Minister is going to launch some programmes which will give a good platform to the budding talents to prove their mettle in State, national and international level," BJD MLA Amar Satpathy said.
On the other hand, the BJP has dubbed the programme as a political gimmick.
“BJD usually comes up with such ideas to garner public support just before the elections. Be it the distribution of mobile phones to youths in the name of Biju Yuva Bahini or the distribution of bat and balls, these announcements are part of their political tricks. But, once elections are over, the party doesn't remember the youths who worked for them during the polls," State BJP spokesperson Amar Nayak said.
Echoing similar views, the State Congress has said that dragging sports into the political field is pre-poll tactics of BJD.
"This is political stunt of the ruling party as the panchayat and civic body polls are approaching. The party had launched Biju Yuva Bahini before the general elections,” asked Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik.
BJD sources said as many as eight teams of both football and cricket comprising selected players from panchayat level will be constituted. In this manner, 32 teams will be formed in every district for the premier league.
The party has appointed an observer to select players who will take part in the tournaments. The BJD has launched the initiative in Mayurbhanj district on a trial basis and later it will expand the programme gradually to other districts.
Political analysts opine that the new plan of the regional party may backfire as youths in the State now need employment after going several months of tumult due to Covid crisis.
"Youths and students were seen inclining towards BJP during last elections. So, the programme might be a plan of BJD to revalidate its support base among youth mass. At a time when youths are in a dire need of job, the plan of the ruling party may not yield much fruits," political analyst Rabi Das said.
It is worth mentioning that BJD had performed a dismal show in the last three-tyre panchayat polls. The party had occupied 654 Zilla Parishad seats in the State in 2012 polls while the figure came down to 473 in 2017.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)
