Bhubaneswar: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday formed a committee to recommend a suitable candidate of the party for the upcoming Bijepur by-election.
According AICC General Secretary and MP Janardan Dwivedi, the six-member panel comprising Hemananda Biswal as its chairman, Jagannath Patnaik as convener and Jharsuguda MLA Naba Das, senior leaders Sarat Patnaik, Bhakta Charan Das and Anantasana Padhi, president Bargarh district Congress committee, will suggest a name to the party high-command.
The by-poll to the Bijepur assembly segment that has been necessitated after the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu August 22 last year will take place February 24.
Notably, the Congress party seems to be in a fix over selection of candidate after Subal’s spouse joined the ruling BJD and was nominated as the candidate of the ruling dispensation for the by-poll.
This is the second time such a committee has been formed by the party to pick candidate for the by-election.
Earlier, the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president, Prasad Harichandan, had formed the four-member observers’ panel headed by the Jharsuguda MLA October 6 to pay visit to various blocks under the assembly constituency and submit report on the political situation in the area and suggest names of suitable candidates, from which the party would pick the right one to be given the party ticket. Though the committee submitted its report shortly, no name was announced.
On the other hand, the BJP has also not named its candidate for the by-poll even though party’s MP from Orissa and union minister Jual Oram had said that party may name the candidate for the by-election by January 27.
PNN
