Congress Finalised 60 Candidates for Odisha Assembly polls: Tara Bahinipati

Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress leader and Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati on Tuesday said his party had already finalised 60 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha.

“Our party has decided that candidates having winning prospects will be provided with tickets. All our candidates are mentally ready to fight polls against the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” said Bahinipati during an interaction with the journalists here.

Stating that the infighting in BJD and BJP was intense, the firebrand Congress leader said all his party stood united and it was “well-organised” to oust the Naveen Patnaik government from power.

“There is intense infighting and bickering in the BJD and BJP. But we in the Congress stand united. Even though I had differences with our Koraput Lok Sabha member Saptagiri Ulaka, we have finally buried the hatchet to see that our party does well in the southern region of the state to which we belong to. Nonetheless, we would also   move across the state to ensure an impressive victory for our party,” said Bahinipati.

The Odisha state unit of Congress has decided that its senior leaders would move in ‘Congress Bus’ as an outreach programme to get connected with the voters.

The ‘Congress Bus,’ as planned by party president Sarat Pattanayak, will move in Odisha from January 21. The party leaders and MLAs are slated to visit all Assembly constituencies of Odisha by the bus with an aim to build a close relationship with the voters.

The Congress in Odisha has been activated after the newly appointed state in-charge Dr Ajoy Kumar arrived in the state on January 6 and held several rounds of meetings with different wings of the party.

Dr Kumar’s meticulous attack on the ruling BJD and BJP seems to have generated a lot of enthusiasm for the party’s rank and file ahead of the crucial Assembly elections which will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

Making a veiled attack on the Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat-turned BJD’s “most powerful” BJD politician V Karthikeyan Pandian, Dr Kumar has called upon party workers and people to ‘remove outsiders and save Odisha.’