BHUBANESWAR, February 4: As many as eight party functionaries of the Biju Janata Dal resigned today in protest against the way the regional outfit was being run. The latest action by the dissidents mostly belonging to the Western Orissa group has pushed the BJD into a fresh crisis.Those who have resigned from the posts include, Kamala Das, member of the political affairs committee and president of the Mahila Morcha, Kunduru Kushal, president of the Sonepur district unit, Sachidananda Dalal, president of the Boudh unit, Balabhadra Majhi, general secretary, Raghunath Hembrum, member, PAC, Ramesh Chandra Sahu, president of the Bolangir unit, Prasanna Padhi, president of the Nuapada unit and Kiran Chandra Singhdeo, president of the Kalahandi district unit.
In a letter to the BJD president Naveen Patnaik, the dissidents have said that it would not be possible for them to continue in the `ornamental' party posts any longer. Significantly, the letter did not have the signatures of party vice-president AUSinghdeo and secretary general Prasanna Kumar Acharya, who are said to be the brain behind the move of the dissidents.
The dissidents have alleged that the BJD leadership has violated the principles followed by late Biju Patnaik by not giving any importance to women in the organisation. Though the BJD fielded candidates from as many as 12 constituencies, not a single woman candidate was nominated, they added.They lamented that it was late Biju Patnaik who had conceived the idea to allot 33 per cent tickets to women candidates.
Expressing their unhappiness over the way the party was being run, they alleged that a feeling was gaining ground that all decisions were being taken by `one or two leaders' belonging to the coastal Orissa. Alleging that these leaders were also interfering in party affairs of other districts, they said that all top posts in the party have been cornered by persons from one or two districts.
The dissidents also alleged that in the distribution of tickets, the opinion of localleaders and workers were not taken into account.
Meanwhile, the BJD and the BJP have asserted that there was no rift between them and alleged that the Congress had spread disinformation to break the alliance.
Formally launching their joint poll campaign at a rally held in the temple town Puri yesterday, leaders of both the parties (BJD and BJP) said that their common aim was to instal a BJP-led government at the Centre and to oust the corrupt congress government in orissa.
BJD president Naveen Patnaik lashed out at the JB Patnaik government stating that it lacked any clear policy to improve the conditions of the farmers, women and other weaker sections of the society.
The state had been witnessing increasing atrocities against women, he said while referring to the recent sex scandal in Kendrapara town.
Stating that the results of the lok sabha polls in the state would redraw the political map of Orissa, chairman of BJD's political affairs committee Bijoy Mohapatra said the main contest here would bebetween the BJD-BJP combine and the Congress with all other parties reduced to insignificance.
Accusing the Congress of pushing Orissa towards a debt trap, Mohapatra said the government owed an explanation to the people as to the justification of burdening the state with a whopping loan of Rs 5000 crore since march 1995.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
