The Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM) is planning to form a “grand alliance” with 15 anti-BJD outfits with a bid to steal the show in the upcoming general election next year, said OJM president Pyarimohan Mohapatra at a Press meet here on Wednesday.
Mohapatra said all the formalities for the alliance would be completed within a month with leaders of various outfits joining it. “We have started the process for a big equation in the State politics by uniting all the anti-Naveen parties,” Mohapatra said, adding that all Opposition parties should fight united to defeat the ruling BJD. “We will welcome any anti-BJD force to join in our party,” he said.
The OJM chief said his party would launch a major membership drive from October 20 and bring 20 lakh workers to the party fold by December. The party would resume its Sampark Kranti Yatra across the State to make the people aware about objectives and aims of the party. The party would campaign from the grassroots level particularly in villages and panchayats of 35 Assembly constituencies in western Odisha.
Mohapatra alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s “invisible role” in creating a critical situation compelling to stop elections in western Odisha can’t be ruled out. To avoid a possible defeat in Western Odisha, the BJD Government had indirectly instigated the agitators for HC Bench movements and then subsequently declared Sambalpur as a Municipal Corporation to get political benefit, he said.
He further alleged that the BJD by various means lured the winning candidates to capture the posts of chairpersons of several NACs and municipalities. Even the party leaders distributed money among the voters to get votes during recent urban local body (UlB) election, he added.
Mohapatra declared that the OJM would field candidates in the elections for the UlBs in western Odisha as the party got registered with Election Commission of India on Tuesday. The party would get a symbol on November 25, he added.
Mohapatra also officially announced the induction of hundreds of Congress members led by former Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Bibhuti Mishra.
Along with Mishra, hundreds of Congress workers from Athagarh, Tigiria and other parts of Cuttack district joined the OJM. Mishra said, “General Election 2014 is not in Congress agenda. Most of the Congress leaders are engaged in backbiting instead of working for the party’s victory, for which reason I left the Congress and joined the OJM to fight against the BJD’s autocratic rule in the State.”