Brewing dissidence, a looming threat for BJD

Bhubaneswar: Even as BJD president and Chief Minister has reposed faith on returning to power without forging any kind of alliance in 2019 elections, the road ahead doesn’t seem rosy enough keeping in view the growing dissidence and infighting within the party.

Be it Khallikote, Aska, Daspalla or Brajrajnagar, there have been reports of infighting in BJD during observance of Jan Sampark Padyatra with BJD activists vehemently opposing local MLAs and top leadership.

Rival factions have also turned heat on Aska MLA, Debraj Mohanty demanding his ouster.

“We want a good leader in and we strongly oppose the working methods of the current MLA in Aska,” said former youth BJD leader, Satyanarayan Swain.

“We are district presidents and such opposition is anti-party activity,” said Mohanty.

Moreover, opposition is growing against BJD’s Khallikote MLA Purnachandra Sethi as a rally was today organized against the local legislator by the party activists over corruption charges.

Also Read: BJD infighting resurfaces at Gunupur meeting

BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb admitted that there could be some resentment among activists over local leadership but all have faith on the decisions of party supremo Naveen Patnaik.

Not only BJD, Congress too seems to be facing internal feud with two fractions, one led by Prasad Harichandan and another by Niranjan Patnaik observing the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi separately on Tuesday.

Though Congress heavyweights including Srikant Jena, Kanhu Lenka, Sarat Patnaik, Hemanand Biswal, Jaydev Jena attended Indira Jyoti Yatra organized by PCC chief Prasad Harichandan, leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra and Niranjan Patnaik gave the event a miss.

Both the leaders along with Ganeswar attended a program organized by Tara Prasad Bahinipati to mark the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi at Boriguma.

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