Cong workers protest against G Udayagiri MLA
Hrusikesh Mohanty | TNN | Feb 28, 2019, 04:09 ISTBerhampur: Internal bickering within the Congress came to the fore on Wednesday when several party supporters of G Udayagiri assembly constituency in Kandhamal district staged a demonstration against the sitting Congress MLA Jacob Pradhan near the Congress Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.
They were demanding that Pradhan should not be given the party ticket to seek re-election in the ensuing elections. Congress supporters led by Kali Charan Mallick, the zonal president of the party in Daringbadi block, alleged that the MLA was involved in corruption and people of the area were not happy with him. So he should be denied the ticket to contest again from the same seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST), he added.
They also told the party’s screening committee about it. The committee seeks the opinion of the party’s grassroot workers before shortlisting the probable candidates for different constituencies. Pradhan denied the allegations. “Those who have demonstrated and shouted slogans against me do not belong to the Congress,” he said. Some of them did so out of jealously after I carried out many development works in the area, he added.
The MLA said he had made Mallick his representative in Daringbadi block. He is aggrieved because he was removed from the post after I received some corruption allegations against him, said Pradhan.
Pradhan, who contested the election in 2014 after quitting his bank job, is also aspiring for the G. Udayagiri ticket this time around. “I am interested to contest again, if the party provides the ticket,” he said.
Pradhan was the only Congress candidate to have won from an assembly constituency in Kandhamal district. Candidates of the ruling BJD were elected from the other two assembly segments (Baliguda and Phulbani) in 2014.
They were demanding that Pradhan should not be given the party ticket to seek re-election in the ensuing elections. Congress supporters led by Kali Charan Mallick, the zonal president of the party in Daringbadi block, alleged that the MLA was involved in corruption and people of the area were not happy with him. So he should be denied the ticket to contest again from the same seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST), he added.
They also told the party’s screening committee about it. The committee seeks the opinion of the party’s grassroot workers before shortlisting the probable candidates for different constituencies. Pradhan denied the allegations. “Those who have demonstrated and shouted slogans against me do not belong to the Congress,” he said. Some of them did so out of jealously after I carried out many development works in the area, he added.
The MLA said he had made Mallick his representative in Daringbadi block. He is aggrieved because he was removed from the post after I received some corruption allegations against him, said Pradhan.
Pradhan, who contested the election in 2014 after quitting his bank job, is also aspiring for the G. Udayagiri ticket this time around. “I am interested to contest again, if the party provides the ticket,” he said.
Pradhan was the only Congress candidate to have won from an assembly constituency in Kandhamal district. Candidates of the ruling BJD were elected from the other two assembly segments (Baliguda and Phulbani) in 2014.
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