Crack in Jharsuguda BJP ahead of Brajrajnagar poll

BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of the crucial Brajrajnagar by-election on May 31,  the BJP received a big jolt as Jharsuguda district president Mangal Sahoo resigned from his post.The resignation of Sahoo came a day after the central election committee of the party named former MLA Radharani Panda as the BJP candidate for the by-election.Sending his resignation letter to party’s State unit president Samir Mohanty, Sahoo said, “My aim was to strengthen the party organisation in coordination with all senior and junior karyakartas (workers). But nowadays, it is impossible.” 

Severing his over 25-year-old association with the BJP, Sahoo said that the BJP is rudderless in Jharsuguda district, as well as in Brajrajnagar constituency and the dedicated party workers of the district are feeling helpless and insecure.The resignation of Sahoo is a clear signal to the State leadership that all is not well in the industrial district of Jharsuguda. This has exposed the weakness of the BJP which has been struggling to retain the seat it had lost in the last Assembly election.

A communist and Congress bastion till 2009, the BJP succeeded in dislodging the grand old party and its sitting MLA Anup Sai from Brajrajnagar in the 2014 election with Radharani emerging winner.Sahoo had the strong backing of Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari who had unsuccessfully contested from the constituency thrice while Radharani belongs to the Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s camp. 

The opposition of Pujari to Radharani’s candidature stems from the fact that he received very insignificant votes from Brajrajnagar Assembly in the general elections. He since has been nursing a grudge against her. The long history of animosity between the two leaders is quite an open secret.Radharani, who started her political career as a trade union leader and later joined Janata Dal, is a late entrant to BJP, while Sahoo has been working in different capacity for the saffron party for a long time.

The State BJP president and organising secretary Manas Mohanty have proceeded to Jharsuguda to assuage Sahoo and persuade him to withdraw his resignation letter, which has caused serious embarrassment to the party ahead of the polls. “We understand the sentiment of Sahoo for he has been serving the party for a long time but as a disciplined soldier of the BJP he has to accept the decision of the party,” Mohanty said.