Elections 2019: BJP opposes Anant Narayan Jena's candidature

Bhubaneswar: The women’s wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today criticised BJD’s decision to field former Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor Anant Narayan Jena from Bhubaneswar Central Assembly constituency.

Addressing a presser today, senior leader and BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Bhubaneswar Aparajita Sarangi said that it is really shocking and condemnable that the ruling party nominated a person against whom serious allegations of murder and sexual harassment have been levelled.

“The ruling party has nominated a person for Bhubaneswar Central Assembly segment who was allegedly involved in murder of an engineering student and also accused of sexual misconduct. It seems that is only doing lip service on women empowerment," alleged Sarangi.

Meanwhile, BJP activists staged a protest in front of the Returning Officer demanding rejection of nomination papers of Jena. They alleged that the ex-mayor holds office of profit and provided false affidavit while filing papers before the Returning Officer for the upcoming polls.

“As the scrutiny of papers for Bhubaneswar Central was scheduled for yesterday, we lodged a complaint before the returning officer. During the hearing, the returning officer did not take it into cognisance and said he will take a decision later,” Samir Mohanty, State BJP vice president.