Supporters rally demanding Sambalpur ticket for BYJD leader

Sambalpur: Supporters of the state working president of Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD), Sanjit Mohanty, who is a poll aspirant for the Sambalpur assembly constituency, took out a rally on Sunday to demand a ticket for him. Nowithstading the rally, BJD renominated Raseswari Panigrahi from the seat later in the day.

Mohanty’s supporters — the majority of who are students and youth — gathered in front of the main gate of the Gangadhar Meher University (GMU) here, holding placards and banners. They raised slogans seeking the nomination of Mohanty from Sambalpur before proceeding with the rally, which started from the GMU’s main gate and culminated at the same spot, covering a distance of around two kilometres.

State organising secretary of BYJD Mohit Nayak said, “Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has always given priority to the youth and Mohanty is a deserving candidate. He has been working for the party for the last 10 years. We want BJD to nominate him from Sambalpur.”

“We are hopeful that Naveen will nominate youth leader Sanjit Mohanty from the constituency and reward his dedicated work for the party,” said Milan Kumar Hota, state secretary of Biju Chhatra Janata Dal.

Earlier, BJP and Congress declared their candidates for the Sambalpur seat. While BJP has declared Jayanarayan Mishra as the candidate, Congress has nominated Aswini Guru from the seat.

Panigrahi, who is the MLA from Sambalpur now, was new to the party when she was given a ticket in 2014. She won the assembly seat by defeating BJP heavyweight and former minister Jayanarayan Mishra by a margin of 9,958 votes in the last election.

In another development, followers of former MLA of Jharsuguda constituency, Birendra Pandey, locked the party office in Jharsuguda town following the denial of a ticket to him. The party has nominated Mahendra Nayak from the constituency. Sources said Pandey’s supporters had also left for Bhubaneswar to demand a ticket for him from the Jharsuguda seat.