Dissidence Over District Youth President Post May Prove Costly For BJD In Tirtol Bypoll

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD’s decision of not announcing the name of Jagatsinghpur district youth president has brought to the fore the acrimony among the local leaders which may cast a shadow on the party’s prospects in the forthcoming byelection to Tirtol Assembly constituency.

The political observers hold that though the BJD may not have announced the district youth president’s name to prevent any flare-up of dissidence among the local leaders, it seems to have further aggravated the situation.

According to sources, Jagatsinghpur MP Rajashree Mallick, Water Resources minister and Balikuda-Erasama MLA Raghunandan Das and local BJD leader Amarendra Das had proposed the name of Balikuda panchayat samiti member Saumyajit Mohapatra for the post.

Their proposal was reportedly opposed by  Jagatsinghpur legislator Prasant Muduli. The relationship between Prasant and Raghunandan had soured after the BJD replaced the former with the latter in Balikuda-Erasam constituency in 2019 elections.

Jagatsinghpur student BJD president Pradipta Bhuyan had also lobbied for the district youth president post. He was supported by the followers of former Tirtol MLA late Bishnu Das, the sources said.

Though the party is yet to decided the candidate for Tirtol bypoll, these developments my snowball into a major hurdle for the BJD to ensure victory, the political observers said.