Former district BJD unit president Amarendra Das organised a rally and meeting of his supporters in Jagatsinghpur on Wednesday. A large number of BJD sympathisers, mainly detractors of MLA Prashant Muduli, students and women from Jagatsinghpur Assembly constituency had joined.
The rally led to traffic snarl in the town for four hours from 9 am to 1 pm as it was taken out from Gandhi Chhak to Charchika Bazar here covering 4km. Former Zilla Parishad president Devidatta Mohanty chaired the meeting accompanied by Jagatsinghpur former Block Chairman Prasanna Swain, Vice Chairman Laxmikanta Swain, BJD leaders Suresh Nanda, SK Rakib Uddin, Devi Prasad Sahani, Sulochana Das and scores of former PRI members and BJD sympathisers from Naugaon and Jagatsinghpur Blocks.
The participants urged the BJD State leadership to give party ticket to Das for Jagatsinghpur Assembly seat for the ensuing 2024 elections. .
Speaking on the occasion, Das discussed the BJD Government’s success stories and the able leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. “The people of Odisha want to carry on with Naveen's regime for the sixth time; so the workers should work hard to strengthen party’s organisational growth at the gross root level,” opined Das.
Political observers were astonished to watch the rally and congregation and opined that such a mass gathering was not noticed even on the BJD Foundation Day held at Jagatsinghpur headquarters a fortnight ago.
Reports said that Das had been denied a ticket for the 2019 elections while Prashant Muduli was fielded from Jagatsinghpur who won the election. Das had been awarded the party district president post during the 2019 polls.
But due to a few undisclosed reasons, Das was dropped from the party president post and was given the chairman post of Cashew Development Corporation. MLA Muduli grabbed the post of district president instead which later strained the relation of the duo.
Again, the schism within the BJD was exacerbated as Das and his supporters were ignored by MLA Muduli leading the former to launch a parallel group inside the party taking Muduli’s detractors.
Political observers opine that despite not holding any post or position in the BJD, Das has a good deal of fan following and hence, his lobby for a party ticket for 2024 elections has been strong.