A two-day Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) State convention and training programme was inaugurated here on Saturday by its BYJD chief and Minister Sanjay Dasburma and reception committee chairman and Rajgangpur MlA Mangala Kissan jointly. About 2,000 youth leaders from all over the State have participated in the programme.
The Steel City is now crowded by a dozen of Ministers and many party MlAs and MPs including Arun Sahoo, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pranab Prakash Das, Dr Pradeep Panigrahi, Debi Mishra, Sudam Marandi, Ramesh Majhi, Puspendra Singh Deo, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Dilip Tirkey, Pratap Jena, Subrat Tarai, Prasant Jagdeb, Rohit Pujari, Samir Ranjan Das, Manohar Kandhari, Byamokesh Ray, Kishore Tarai, Pranab Balabant Ray, Debesh Acharya, Anubhab Pattanaik, Priyansu Pradhan, RDA Chairman Sarada Prasad Nayak, youth leaders Bijay Nayak, Debasis Mohanty, Kunabihari Das, Sanjib Nayak and Sumant Panda.
Many more Ministers, MlAs and MPs are expected to join the gathering while CM Naveen Patnaik will address a public meeting on the concluding day. The entire city is decorated with party flags, banners and cutouts of Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik.
Dasburma briefed the Press that the BYJD has focused on four aspects of the State, political, economic, social and organisational, on which the youth leaders would be trained. He also reiterated the Centre’s neglect of the State, which the BYJD would never tolerate.
On the other hand, the BJP and the Congress condemned the BJD with the allegation that instead of doing something for livelihood of the unemployed youths of the State, the ruling party has been spending huge money to lure the youths in a deceitful manner which would not work at least in Rourkela and Sundargarh.