Blamegame begins, MP slams PCC chief

The Pioneer, Feb 22, 2012
Bikash Khemka, Bhawanipatna

The results of the panchayat elections in Kalahandi district have come as a rude shock to the Congress. Though Congress MP Bhakta Charan Das had expected at least 22 Zilla Parishad seats for the party, it got only three seats.

Das is now reviewing the things that went wrong with his party.

Sources close to Das alleged that PCC president Niranjan Patnaik distributed the party tickets for the ZP candidates directly to the party MLAs in the district without any consultation with him. The MLAs chose the candidates according to their personal preferences, resulting in the dismal performance of the party.

Das’ supporters said the MLAs never sought advice from the MP for choosing the candidates. Das had expected that the “blank tickets” that the PCC chief handed over to the Congress legislators should have been given to him so that winnable candidates would have been fielded to fight the polls under his leadership.

Das also alleged that the BJD always followed him wherever he went for campaigning. Just after his visit to an area, BJD workers would move there and pay huge amounts of money to woo the voters. This was another reason for the Congress’ defeat, Das said, adding that the ruling party also used the district administration in its favour to win the elections. In the first phase of the polls in the district, the Congress could not open its account as out of the seven ZP seats the BJD bagged six and the BJP one. Had the Congress got at least two seats in the first phase, it would have significantly improved the party’s performances in the next phases, he observed.

Even in the Narla constituency represented by Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh, the Congress failed to win the polls.

However, BJD district president Balabhadra Majhi said at a meeting that the voters rejected the Congress in this election as the Congress, after wining the ZP poll last time, did nothing for the rural people. In fact, Congress workers themselves used money power in this election, he alleged.

According to observers, the BJD Government’s schemes to provide bicycles to girl students and uniforms to all students, and the Mamata Yojana ensured electoral success to the party.