Union Tribal Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Jual Oram on Monday made a whirlwind tour of Mayurbhanj, campaigning for his party candidates for the Zilla Parishad elections.
He was accompanied by film star and politician Sritam Das. With this, the election scenario here has become hot.
In course of his one-day visit here, Oram addressed two public meetings, the first one at Manida in Rasgovindpur block and the second one at Suliapada in Suliapada block. In his speech, while on the one hand, the Union Minister hailed the Central Government’s various plans and programmes like demonetization, Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan, Jan Dhan Yojana, Housing for All etc, on the other, he vehemently criticized the State Government’s schemes and policies. He also held the BJD Government squarely responsible for the chit fund scams.
The Manida meeting was attended by BJP’s ZP Zone No 47 candidate Minati Patra, party vice president Rajkishor Das, district president Dr Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, former MlA Kandra Soren, Pradeep Mohanty, Paresh Mohanta, Gadadhar Ray, Praveer Ghosh and Sachindra Geri, among others. The Suliapada meeting was attended by the party’s ZP Zone No 53 and 54 candidates, Sudhir Behera and Meera Dheer, BJP district vice president Subash Pradhan, State executive member Jeevan Kumar Sahu, State Kishan Morcha vice president Narayan Patnaik, Narottam Panigrahi and other local leaders.
After Oram’s visit, BJP workers in the area now feel a little more enthused and energised and are likely to step up their election campaign further in the next few days. Panchayat elections in Rasgovindpur, Suliapada, Modada, Betnoti, Udala and Kaptipada blocks will be held in the first phase on January 13 and the real electoral battle seems to be between the BJD and the BJP in most of these areas.
Not to be outsmarted, the BJD with a view to add colour and glamour to its campaign brought in artist-turned-politician Kuna Tripathy to canvass for the party nominees in the Zilla Parishad elections. While Tripathy visited Udala and Kaptipada Blocks, along with local BJD MlAs, he is scheduled to tour other parts of the district as well, according to BJD sources here.