Supports of senior Congress leader lalatendu (lulu) Bidyadhar Mohapatra formed a special forum titled ‘lulu Sena’ on his birthday on Sunday.
According to sources, many supporters gathered at Mohapatra’s house here and observed his birthday by cutting a cake on which ‘lulu Sena’ was written. They chose Rajendra Panda as the Sena’s president.
Though the supporters distributed sweets among themselves expressing their joy over formation of the Sena, Mohapatra, however, termed it as a ‘Congress Sena’.
The formation of lulu Sena assumes significance in the wake of the party’s many frontal leaders publicly admitting that differences of opinion continue to prevail in the party.
Besides, frequent postponement of the proposed Congress Yuva Garjan Samavesh seems to have fuelled formation of such a forum so that the party’s high command can be shown the supporter-strength of Mohapatra. The forum is viewed as a pressure tactic by many.
Notably, Mohapatra had visited a lot of places in the State to motivate the party’s youth workers to hold the proposed Yuva Garjan rally that had been scheduled on February 2. But the Pradesh Congress Committee postponed the proposal on the plea that the day was to be observed as the 10th year completion of MGNREGA launched by the then Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.