Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal on Friday attributed faulty selection of candidate and fixing to the miserable show of his party in the just-concluded Bijepur byelection in Odisha’s Bargarh district.
“The All India Congress Committee (AICC) had appointed me as the chairperson of the selection committee. Initially it was decided to pick Pranaya Sahu as the candidate. But after a ground study and considering the mood of the people of Bijepur constituency, we later recommended the name of Ripunath Seth as the candidate to the AICC. But some of our senior state leaders having close proximity with the AICC leaders managed to convince the party supremo and referred the name of Pranaya Sahu as the party candidate. The outcome of the results is all before you,” Biswal told a local news channel here.
However, Biswal said despite the selection of Sahu, he and Ripunath had no ill feeling against him. “Both of us were present at the office of the Returning Officer while Sahu had filed his nomination papers. Even Ripunath had tried his best for the victory of Sahu,” he pointed out.
The former Chief Minister also said the tacit understanding of the ruling BJD with the Congress was the other crucial factor for the party’s sloppy performance in the byelection.
“During the panchayat elections, Congress had a clandestine tie-up with the BJP while in this byelection it had a tacit understanding with the BJD against its party candidate,” he maintained.
Terming Biswal’s statement as baseless, Sahu said the people of Bijepur did not take Congress into their confidence. Despite this, the position of Congress was much better till February 20. But it suddenly took a nosedive later as the people came to know about that the financial condition of the Congress is not good. This gave them an impression that due to its poor financial condition, Congress cannot win the election. With this mindset, the Congress votes were shared between the BJP and the BJD.
Reacting to the statement of Biswal, chairperson of the PCC Disciplinary Committee, Sandhya Mohapatra said why he had remained silent on this issue at that time. “Since Biswal had campaigned for the party candidate in Bijepur, he should not have made such comments,” she noted.
Commenting on the issue, senior Congress leader Sura Routray said his party is responsible for its miserable defeat in the byelection.
“There was inordinate delay in the formation of the selection committee and as a result, the BJD got extra time to rev up its campaigning. Secondly, the BJD supremo, who talks about his clean image, was leading the show by distributing huge money among the people in Bijepur. As per our information, the BJD and the BJP have distributed a cash of Rs 10,000 and Rs 8000 per head in Bijepur constituency,” Rout added.
On the selection of new president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC), he said the party will accept any new PCC chief selected by the party supremo Rahul Gandhi.
