While BJD had swept the last general elections in the State, in Sundargarh district it had disappointing results. Not only did it lose the MP seat but also lost five out of seven Assembly seats. Surprisingly, the much-hyped Rourkela Assembly seat known as the bastion of BJD slipped to the BJP. The drubbing of the party was attributed to infighting among the leaders of the district unit.
Realising it, the party boss and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken a series of initiatives to maintain unity among the leaders. He had directed the frontline leaders to show their unity at the BJD foundation day observation on December 26 last at Bisra Munda Stadium here. Almost all the frontline leaders were on the dais, though earlier they even did not look eye to eye.
But the way the leaders showed their unity on December 26 was not reflected in last Urban Cooperative Bank elections and that is why the candidates supported by the BJD performed miserably. Despite this, the party hopes to revive its fortune in Steel City by hosting a State-level convention and training of Youth BJD leaders here, which would also be attended by the party supremo Patnaik including a dozen of Ministers and MlAs. Perhaps keeping in view the forthcoming Rourkela Corporation polls which would be held in May-June, the party has decided to congregate the leaders here under one roof.
The meeting is important to establish unity among the top leaders as it will be attended by former Rourkela MlA and RDA chairman Sarada Prasad Nayak, Rajgangpur MlA Mangala Kissan, Raghunathpali MlA Subrat Tarai, Rourkela District Committee president Anand Chandra Mohanty and many State council members. The local leaders had recently gathered at the Sector-5 office which was untouchable for many leaders during last Assembly election campaign as that house is allotted by RSP to Nayak. Mines and labour Minister Prafulla Mallick was present there. For sometimes the situation turned ugly as internal differences among the leaders came out in their speeches but it was managed with the intervention of Nayak.
According to sources, the BJD Youth training programme will be held on February 14 and 15. Political observers here believe that the holding of the youth convention at Rourkela will help the BJD hit three targets — it can unite the leaders, strengthen party’s position and blow the bigul for the corporation election. Besides attending the meeting, Chief Minister Patnaik will also join many other programmes including foundation stones laying of several new projects and unveiling a few completed ones.