Bhubaneswar North MLA Sushant Rout, who was recently appointed as president of the BJD Bhubaneswar unit, shared his plans and ideas about strengthening the party and its election prospects in the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency with our correspondent Pabitra Senapaty.
As the new president of the Bhubaneswar BJD unit, what’s your agenda for strengthening the party in the State capital?
First of all, I would thank our party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for having confidence in me and making me the president of Bhubaneswar district. As an organising president, I would definitely work to develop the organisation of my party in Bhubaneswar. I will take each and every worker from the grassroots to confidence. I will try my level best to satisfy each and every person. I will take all workers into one fold and try to utilise capability of each of them to strengthen the party in the district. It is not that I will sit silent taking the post. I will try doing the best for the Bhubaneswar organisation.
My priority will be to see that maximum women workers come forward to get involved in the party organisation. As the Chief Minister wants, empowerment of women in the region will be my main agenda. My next priority will be to see that all decisions taken by Naveen Patnaik are implemented properly and all Government programmes reach the grassroots level.
What do you think about the party’s prospects in Bhubaneswar if both Assembly and Parliamentary elections and civic body elections are held now?
Definitely, we will do the best. In the last general election, we won six of seven Assembly seats under the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency. We lost the Lok Sabha seat by only 20,000 votes. We got 4.70 lakh votes and we don’t think we have lost the Parliamentary seat in terms of the number of votes though we accept the practical win of the other candidate. I am 100-per cent confident that we will win all seven Assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat if elections are held today. And will form municipal council very smoothly.
You see, initiatives and projects being undertaken by the Naveen Patnaik Government have been taken as examples for other States and the Centre too. Various innovate projects, whether relating to Covid-19 or relating to development sector, have always been matters of discussion at the national level. Recently, Covid-19 initiatives have fetched accolades for Odisha from the nation and aboard. Odisha has turned to be a number one State. We don’t say this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is always setting Odisha as an example State for others. ‘
Would you please tell about why you chose a political career?
During my student days, I loved to help my classmates, juniors and seniors. After completion of MBA in New Delhi, I wanted to enter into politics and keep up my habit of helping people. I was general secretary of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) from 2007 to 2014-15. Basically, I was not in the frontline politics. My aim is to serve people.