Dissatisfaction in Congress amid rumors of agreement with CPM
Rourkela: Congress leaders and workers of Bonai Assembly are both perturbed and confused amid growing speculations about the grand old party leaving the seat again for alliance partner CPM.
As seat-sharing talks are going on between the Congress and CPM central leadership, it is believed that the Communist Party’s sitting MLA Laxman Munda will be repped in Bonai as the alliance’s candidate for the 2024 elections.
Sources said local sentiments are against any alliance with the CPM and a section of angry Congressmen have hinted at fielding a rebel candidate. Congressmen believe that the alliance with CPM in the 2004 and 2019 elections weakened the organization of the oldest party in Bonai.
Party insiders said the last Congress MLA from Bonai was Janardan Dehuri who is now the Sundargarh District Congress Committee president. Dehuri had won the by-election in 1997. Due to the alliance in the 2004 elections, CPM’s Munda won with the support of Congress for the first time and this was the first step towards the party’s defeat.
In the 2009 election, Congress candidate Ranjit Kisan secured around 25,000 votes and stood third, while CPM’s Munda stood second with around 27,000 votes. In 2014, Congress candidate Bhimsen Chaudhary and BJD’s Dayanidhi Kisan got 37,181 votes and 37,307 votes respectively, while CPM’s Munda won with a marginal lead of 1,818 votes.
It was believed that Congress lost the election as Dehuri contested as an independent candidate and secured around 6,000 votes.
Congress coordinator BK Das said party workers feel that the CPM has benefited from the Congress without any return. In 2019, CPM MLA Munda got around 60 thousand votes with the support of Congress. But the Congress candidate for Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat got barely 35,000 votes from Bonai assembly constituency. He said that if Munda is nominated as the alliance candidate, he will be asked to give a written assurance of sincerely supporting the Congress Lok Sabha candidate.
Sundargarh unit Congress president Dehuri said the popular mood in the party is to contest the elections alone. However, they will have to follow the decision of the top leadership of Congress.
Congress leader Baji Kisan, Koida sarpanch Hrishikesh Dehuri, Gurundiya committee member Dashrath Oram and two others have applied for Congress tickets to contest from Bonai. Supporters of the first three ticket contenders claimed that if the party did not give them tickets, their leaders might rebel.
