Bhubaneswar: In what could seem like a major trouble for the BJD, another heavyweight and Morada MLA Praveen Chandra Bhanj Deo resigned from the primary membership of the BJD & from the post of party's district unit president today.
As per reports, after the induction of former BJP leader Raj Kishore Das into BJD, significant changes were made for Mayurbhanj seat. “They have fielded a candidate who has lost thrice, so I decided to quit the party,” said Bhanj Deo who is a two-time MLA.
On the other hand, after announcing Prasant Muduli as BJD candidate from Jagatsinghpur, supporters of Amarendra Das resorted to vandalism at party's district office and blocked road near Thana Chhak yesterday.
“Prasant Muduli has not done anything in Jagatsinghpur despite staying in top post. People are not ready to accept him as MLA candidate,” Das said.
Responding to the allegations, Muduli said, “It is quite common to have resentment among supporters of leaders who don’t get tickets.”
Opposing candidature of Sanjeev Mallick from Bhadrak Assembly seat, supporters of sitting MLA Jugal Patnaik had demanded selection of the legislator's son Asit Patnaik as MLA candidate.
Similarly, some party workers raised slogans in front of Naveen Niwas today demanding cancellation of Kendrapara MLA Kishore Tarai's candidature alleging his involvement in corruption.
Earlier, Bhadrak MP Arjun Sethi and Raghunath Mohanty had resigned from the primary membership of BJD. Prior to that, Mohanty had resigned as the chairman of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation.
Meanwhile, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had said that there will be a Tripura-like result in Odisha this time, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said that BJD will do very well in the upcoming elections.
On the other hand BJP's Odisha in-charge Arun Singh said “We will get 3/4th majority in Odisha this time for sure.”
However, Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik said that the results will be similar to the Assembly results of five states which went to polls recently and not like Tripura.