Youth president choice: Rift in BJD out in open

JAGATSINGHPUR: The BJD’s decision to withhold the name of its new district youth president has exposed the rift between Jagatsinghpur MLA Prasant Muduli and Water Resources Minister-cum-Balikuda-Erasama legislator Raghunandan Das.

BJP supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday approved the names of new district presidents of the party’s youth wing except Jagatsinghpur and Balasore. It is believed that since bypolls will be held in Tirtol of Jagatsinghpur and Balasore Assembly seats shortly, the BJD decided against announcing its youth chiefs of these two districts in order to avoid any dissent among leaders.

Sources said Raghunandan, chairman of Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation (OSCDC) and local BJD leader Amarendra Das and Jagatsinghpur MP Rajashree Mallick had proposed the name of panchayat samiti member of Balikuda Saumyajit Mohapatra for the youth president post while Prasant, who is the current district chief of the party, lobbied for another candidate Samit Lenka.

In 2019 General Elections, BJD replaced Prasant with Raghunandan in Balikuda-Erasama seat following which relationship soured between the two leaders. This apart, Amarendra, a former district BJD youth president of the district, was lobbying for ticket from Jagatsinghpur in  In the last Assembly election. On being ignored by BJD, his supporters had shown black flags to Prasant was who given the party ticket from Jagatsinghpur. 

Chief of Jagatsinghpur student BJD Pradipta Bhuyan said former Tirtol MLA late Bishnu Das had proposed his name for the district youth president post. “I have been a disciplined party worker since 2008. But the local MP, Balikuda-Erasama MLA and Jagatsinghpur legislator are lobbying for their respective candidates. 

All the party leaders should have proposed a single candidate for the greater good of BJD in the district. But due to the differences among them, the party has decided not to announce the name of the youth president, he added.

Political observers opined that while supporters of Bishnu and Rajashree are already at loggerheads over selection of BJD candidate for Tirtol, the rift between the Minister and Jagatsinghpur MLA will hurt the prospects of the party in the upcoming bypolls.