BJD, Congress brace up for oneupmanship

BHUBANESWAR: Political atmosphere in the State has hotted up ahead of the August 9 Kranti Divas as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress prepare for a showdown with different programmes and campaigns on the day.   While the Congress will demand the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the largescale irregularities in the implementation of Central schemes and different scams, the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD), the youth wing of the BJD, will make Central neglect the main theme of its Yuva Pratinidhi Sammilani at Cuttack on August 9. Besides, the mega scams during the UPA-II - 2G spectrum scam, irregularities in the Maharashtra housing society and Commonwealth Games will be raised in the rally to be organised by the BYJD. Though several senior leaders of the party have not been invited to the programme, the party is leaving nothing to chance to make it a success to neutralise the ‘Rahul effect’. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the State on July 13 and 14 for giving a boost to the membership drive of the Youth Congress is said to have been a success as enrolment has gone up. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and several senior ministers will address the youths on Kranti Divas at Cuttack to neutralise its impact and boost the membership drive of BYJD.  BYJD general secretary Bijay Kumar Nayak has called upon the youth activists from Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal and Angul districts to attend the sammilani in large numbers so that the success of the BJD Government can spread to villages.  The Congress will, on the other hand, bring out rallies at all the district headquarter towns demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the scams during his tenure. The multi-crore mining scam, large-scale irregularities in the procurement of dal and the horse-trading in the last year’s Rajya Sabha polls have made the BJD government one of the most corrupt in the country, a senior Congress leader said and demanded the immediate resignation of the Chief Minister.