Even as Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik completed announcement of the names of his party nominees for the coming polls on Tuesday, a party hopper quit his party thereby hinting at the kind of problems the ruling party was likely to face in the run up to the polls.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and former legislator from Balasore Sadar Arun Dey, who had joined the BJD after meeting Mr. Patnaik in the city on March 15, severed all ties with the ruling party.
The resignation of Mr. Dey came after he was denied a BJD ticket to contest the either the Lok Sabha or Assembly poll.
Talking to presspersons, Mr. Dey alleged that the BJD was not under the control of Mr. Patnaik and whoever had money was given the party ticket in Balasore.
The senior leader further alleged that the BJD candidates chosen for the Balasore Lok Sabha constituency and the Assembly segments under it had little chance of winning. Mr. Dey, who contested the 2009 election from Balasore Lok Sabha constituency as an NCP candidate under a seat sharing arrangement with the BJD, had expected to get the BJD ticket to contest for Lok Sabha from Balasore. He, however, decided to quit the ruling party as tickets for Balasore Lok Sabha constituency and all the Assembly segments under it had already been distributed by Mr. Patnaik.
The BJD had also denied ticket to former Congress leader Bhupinder Singh who had joined the BJD recently. He, however, continues to be in the ruling party.
Meanwhile, the BJD announced the names of its candidates for two Assembly segments – Patkura and Niali. In both constituencies the legislators were given the ticket – Bed Prakash Agarwala for Patkura and Pramod Mallick for Niali.
Though Mr. Patnaik had delayed announcement of the names for the two segments for so long, he re-nominated the legislators apparently to avoid dissension in party ranks. The supporters of many legislators who were denied party ticket had already started expressing their displeasure against the party’s decision creating trouble for the party in many areas.
On the other hand, many leaders filed their nomination papers for different Lok Sabha and Assembly seats as Wednesday is the last date for filing of nomination papers for the second phase polls in the State.
