Two BJD election ticket aspirants along with their supporters from the Kotpad Assembly constituency of Koraput district and the Birmitrapur constituency of Sundargarh district on Tuesday met party supremo Naveen Patnaik and conveyed their opposition to the choice of the candidates for the constituencies.
They demanded that the decision to nominate Ashok Pangi, son of incumbent Koraput MP Jayaram Pangi, from Kotpad and Sanjeev Pratap Deo from Biramitrapur be reversed.
The BJD’s Kotpad MlA aspirant Padmini Dian said, “As Pangi is not from our constituency, party workers and Kotpad people cannot accept his candidature. As the party had also fielded an outsider in the 2009 polls, he had lost the election.”
“Jayaram Pangi had assured us that his son would not contest the polls from Kotpad. He has betrayed us,” said Dian. She warned that more workers from Kotpad would reach Bhubaneswar if the party does not take any decision soon.
Similarly, BJD leader from Sundergarh Suleman Ekka and his supporters have expressed their dissatisfaction over the allotment of party ticket to Sanjeeb Pratap Singh Deo for the Biramitrapur Assembly constituency, which is reserved for ST candidates.
They alleged that Deo has forged his caste certificate. “An old land sale deed shows that Deo belongs to Khandayat caste. How can he contest from a ST reserved seatIJ” asked Ekka.
Meanwhile, some people from the Pipili Assembly constituency in Puri district staged protests against sitting BJD MlA Pradeep Maharathy. They demanded not to give party ticket to Maharathy this time.