Odisha: Artistes, Farmers in Kamakhyanagar Urge BJP to Field Playwright as Party Candidate
Bhubaneswar: Amidst of the intense lobbying by career politicians to get themselves tickets from their respective political parties, an unusual scene is being witnessed in Kamakhyanagar assembly constituency where the common people, performing and artistes, film and television artistes’ organisations have been pleading with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for nominating a leading playwright to represent them.
The numerous organizations which have pleaded with the BJP leadership for giving ticket to playwright Arun Kumar Nayak, among others, include Odisha Film and Television Writers Association, local units of Krushak Vikash Parisad and Senior Citizens Forum. Besides, a number of Sarapanches have also pleaded for fielding Nayak as the saffron party candidate.
“K Kamakhyanagar holds the record of sending the first BJP MLA to Odisha Legislative Assembly. He hailed from the rich background of art and culture. Hence, we demand Arun Nayak who has made the area proud with his literary skill,” Girish Chandra Sahoo of Bhuban town under the constituency, said.
Kamakhyanagar is now presented by BJD MLA Prafulla Mallick who is also steel and mines minister in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet. Though the 76-year-old Mallick wants to contest from the seat in the coming polls, some of the young BJD ticket aspirants are reportedly opposing him.
In the 2019 Odisha Assembly polls, Prafulla Mallik won the seat by polling 81,695 votes as against 65,186 votes bagged by BJP’s Satrughan Jena.