BJD’s Tirtol candidate Bijay Shankar Das's marksheet scandal raises its ugly head again

JAGATSINGHPUR: The marksheet manipulation row involving BJD’s Tirtol candidate Bijay Shankar Das has come back to haunt BJD with the Congress deciding to make the issue its major poll plank in the by-election.

District Youth Congress president Prasanta Mallick on Tuesday said the party will raise the issue during its election campaign in the Assembly constituency.

"The clean image of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been exposed after BJD selected Bijay who was involved in manipulation of HSC marksheet when his father Bishnu Das was School and Mass Education Minister in 2007. Bishnu had to resign due to the controversy," he said.

In 2007, Bishnu, then School and Mass Education Minister, had to submit his resignation after it was alleged that he directed officials of the department to increase the marks of his son Bijay in Class X Board examination. Bijay also came under the scanner when he failed to clarify how his son’s papers were rechecked quickly when over 8,000 candidates were in line for the process. 

Similarly, Prasanta questioned the selection of BJP candidate Rajkishore Behera who had unsuccessfully contested the 2009 and 2014 elections from Tirtol on Congress ticket.

“Rajkishore is not a resident of Tirtol. He belongs to Jagatsinghpur Assembly constituency.  Besides, he lacks leadership skills as in his home panchayat Singarpur, the sarpanch candidate of Congress was defeated by a margin of 790 votes,” he said.

Rajkishore had quit Congress and joined BJP last month. In 2009 elections, he secured 48,100 votes and was defeated by BJD candidate late Rabi Bhoi by a margin of 34,182 votes. In the next elections in 2014, he polled 53,505 votes and lost to BJD candidate Rajashree Mallick by 35,448 votes.