BJD Party has come up with a plan to Organise Football & Cricket tournaments from Panchayat to District in Odisha
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD has come up with a plan to organise football and cricket tournaments from Panchayat to district level in a bid to further strengthen its rural base following the BJP making inroads into the interior areas of the State, party sources said on Sunday. The politics of sports seem to be drawn to bolster the ruling party’s prospects in the Panchayat and urban local body polls, expected in the middle of the year.
After stiff challenge from the BJP in the 2019 general elections when the saffron party won eight out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, only four less than the BJD’S 12, the ruling Biju Janata Dal is making all efforts to regain its influence in the rural and tribal areas of the State.
The tournaments will be organised by the Youth and Students’ wings of the BJD without having the party’s election symbol (Conch), but its logo will carry the picture of legendary leader and former chief minister Biju Patnaik, after whom the regional outfit is named. The BJD is ruling the State since 2000. The party has chosen tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district on pilot basis where the BJD appears weak in terms of electoral politics.
State Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi, BJD youth wing president Byomokesh Ray and BJD MLA Pranab Balabantray unveiled the logo, jersey and trophy for the Mayurbhanj Premier League (MPL-2021) at a function held at Baripada on Saturday.
“The party will later extend the programme to other districts after witnessing the success of MPL,” a senior leader said. He said holding tournament from panchayat to district level is the brainchild of BJD’s organising secretary Pranab Prakash Das, who is also in-charge of Mayurbhanj district. Mayurbhanj district is chosen for piloting the sporting experiment as the BJD performed poorly in both the previous panchayat polls in 2017 and later in general elections in 2019. The BJD candidates could win only in three of the nine Assembly segments in Mayurbhanj. Opposition BJP won six Assembly seats and Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat in 2019 general elections.
This apart, the BJP also dominated the rural pockets of Mayurbhanj by winning 49 of the 56 Zilla Parishad seats, while the ruling party finished with only seven seats.
While the football tournaments will start from February 8, the cricket leagues will begin from February 9, according to the match fixture. The BJD sources said that similar events will also be held in Koraput, Malkangiri, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts in 2021.
Opposition BJP and Congress have ridiculed the BJD for using sports for its political gains, while the BJD described it as an attempt to discover hidden sporting talents in the districts.
“The Chief Minister is going to launch some programmes which will give a good platform to the budding talents to prove their mettle at State, national and international level,” BJD MLA Amar Satpathy said.
BJP spokesperson Amar Nayak, however, said that it is “political gimmick” of the BJD to mislead the students and youths across the State ahead of urban polls this year and rural polls likely in 2022. “The BJD had also earlier raised Biju Yuva Vahini and distributed mobile phone sets, bat and balls among youths. This is another such attempt,” Nayak said.
OPCC,President Niranjan Patnaik said this is a new “political stunt” of the ruling party before the Panchayat and civic body polls.
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