With the political temperature rising in the communally-sensitive Kandhamal district after parties hit the campaign trail for the October 15 lok Sabha bypoll, the Congress has decided to raise the twin issues of communalism and corruption during its electioneering to counter the BJP and the ruling BJD.
“We will fight against the communal BJP and the corrupt BJD in the election. We will take the two issues to the people of Kandhamal. While the saffron party is a communal force, the ruling party is neck-deep in corruption starting from land scam, discretionary quota allocation scam and, more importantly, the chit fund scam being currently inquired by the CBI,” said PCC president Jayadev Jena.
On the question of the BJD fielding Pratyusha Rajeswari, the widow of previous MP Hemendra Singh, to get sympathy votes, Jena said the people would not accept her as she does not have any link with the district. “The BJD candidate is a foreign import. She belongs to Nepal and does not know Odia,” he said. Jena also hit out at the BJP for fielding an “imported” BJD leader, against whom dalit atrocity cases have been lodged. “BJP candidate Rudra Madhab Ray hated dalits and Adivasis while he was a BJD MP from the constituency. Several atrocity cases have also been lodged against him for his act,” said the PCC president.
Pitching hard for Congress candidate Abhimanyu Behera, he said the party has fielded a son of soil who is a known face in the constituency as a former MlA. Jena said the Congress has deployed 150 leaders in the constituency to oversee the election campaign. They include a senior leader as the coordinator, two MlAs, a PCC vice-president, two general secretaries and four secretaries in each of the seven Assembly constituencies coming under the constituency.