Several Congress leaders joined a public meeting organised at Ramalingam Tank Road here on Tuesday to campaign for party candidates for the Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on the last day of electioneering. The leaders came in a procession to the meeting venue.
AICC in-charge of Odisha BK Hariparasad in his address said he likes this city very much as there is a relation between Bangalore (his native place) and Brahmapur because lakhs qualified IT personnel from this city are serving in Bangalore and both cities are known as Silk Cities. He accused the BJD Government of misusing the funds given by the Centre for the State’s development. The dream of Sonia Gandhi is to make Brahmapur a slum-free city if the Congress comes to power. Under the BJD rule, Brahmapur has become a city of crimes, he added.
Former Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu said there would be a great change in 2014 in the Indian polity. “If the Congress is voted to power in the BMC, all-round development of this heritage city will be made on war footing. If no development takes place, I will quit politics,” he said.
Veteran leader Narasingha Mishra said the Congress may have some differences in opinions, but there is no groupism in it. If an impartial inquiry by a sitting judge of High Court or Supreme Court is made into the various scams in the State, the BJD Government would be exposed before the public, he said.
Former MlA lalatendu Bidyadhar Mahapatra said people of south Odisha are tolerant and have self-respect, for which Naveen Patnaik is still continuing in power. But this time, Patnaik is going to be defeated, he added.
The meeting was presided over by Town Congress president Sanjib Panigrahi. Among others, State party president Jayadev Jena, leaders Sibananda Ray, Jagannath Pattnaik, AICC secretary Subhankar Sarkar, former CM Giridhar Gamang, leader of Opposition in Assembly Bhupinder Singh, MlA Prasad Harichandan, Kishore Patel, Youth Congress leader Chinmay Sahu, former MlA Sibasankar Sahani and youth leaders Alekh Choudhury, Bikram Panda and Pramod Kumar Das (Benu) attended the meeting.