Two Congress Leaders Revolt Against Ticket Distribution In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Denied ticket for the upcoming polls, two Congress leaders parted ways with the grand old party on Tuesday. They are former Rajgangpur MLA Gregory Minz and sitting G Udayagiri MLA, Jacob Pradhan.

While Minz resigned from the party citing injustice, Pradhan has filed nomination papers for the Assembly elections as an independent candidate.

Ignoring Minz, Congress had named Dr C.S. Rajan as its candidate for the Rajgangpur Assembly seat. A former hockey player and two-time MLA from Rajgangpur, he alleged that his work and contribution in the party went unseen. Though he lost the 2014 election to BJD’s Mangala Kisan, he had defeated him in 2004 and also managed to retain the seat in 2009.

Pradhan decided to contest the upcoming election as an independent candidate a day after the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Indian National Congress named Shyamghan Pradhan as its candidate from the G Udaygiri assembly constituency.