Bhubaneswar: The Congress, pushed to the third position in Odisha politics, will utilise its leaders in neighboring Chhattisgarh to campaign for the party’s candidates for zilla parishad seats during the rural polls slated to begin in February 16.
The names of Chhattisgarh Congress leaders figured in the list of 20 star campaigners and was submitted by the party to the State Election Commissioner, Odisha, a party release said Monday.
The Chhattisgarh leaders who will campaign in Odisha included the state’s PCC president Mohan Markam and the state’s ministers Kawasi Lakhma and Amar Jeet Bhagat, it said.
Sources in the party said that the Chhattisgarh leaders will campaign for Congress candidates in the border districts.
OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, CLP leader Narasingha Mishra and AICC general secretary and Odisha in-charge A Chella Kumar are also among the star campaingers for the Congress.
Among other Congress leaders who will campaign for the party are AICC secretary G Rudra Raju, OPCC working president Chiranjib Biswal, MP Saptagiri Ulaka, former OPCC presidents Jayadev Jena, Sarat Patnaik and Panchanan Kanungo, the release said.
Former OPCC president Prasad Harichandan’s name was excluded after he broke his silence over criticism for his alleged role in the non-distribution of party tickets among aspirants in six zilla parishad zones of Satyabadi Assembly Constituency in Puri district.
Congress has not fielded any candidate from Satyabadi for the first time, an indication of fresh infighting within the party ahead of the panchayat poll.
The party has fielded 836 candidates for 852 zilla parishad posts in Odisha, election for which will be held between February 16 and February 24.
Congress, which had been the state’s main opposition party since it was ousted from power by the ruling BJD in 2000, was relegated to the third position after it secured only 60 zilla parishad seats in the 2017 panchayat election. The BJP had then emerged the number two party by securing 297 zilla parishad seats while the BJD had won 476 seats.
PTI
