BJD Leaders Meet Naveen: A delegation of seven Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders led by MLA Arun Sahoo met party president Naveen Patnaik at his residence on Monday night and discussed preparations for the upcoming panchayat elections.
The leaders who accompanied Sahoo included Chiranjibi Biswal, Bhrugu Buxipatra, Lenin Mohanty, Praful Singh, Raghunath Sahu, Mohammed Shakil and Lora Mohapatra. In a press release issued after the meeting, they said the next panchayat elections would be fought under Naveen Patnaik’s leadership and discussions were held on launching related programmes from Tuesday.
The delegation also briefed the BJD supremo on present situation of Mohan Majhi government. They alleged that the state administration had failed to implement welfare schemes effectively and informed Patnaik about issues concerning law and order, women’s safety and scarcity of fertilizers for farmers. The leaders said the BJD would soon hit the streets to highlight these issues.
However, questions were raised within party circles about the absence of senior leaders including vice-presidents Devi Mishra, Prashan Acharya and Pratap Jena, who are usually part of such consultations. It was also not clear whether V K Pandian was present at the meeting.
