Naveen’s candidature from Kantabanji was a conspiracy, claims Sunanda’s husband

Jajpur: A former zilla parishad member of Jajpur district and husband of former Bari MLA Sunanda Das on Friday alleged that persuading ex-chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik to contest from Kantabanji Assembly constituency in 2024 elections was a conspiracy against him.

Debendra Das claimed that, “The Hinjili Assembly seat in Ganjam district had become unsafe for the former chief minister. The plan was to install Naveen’s close aide VK Pandian as the chief minister after the former’s defeat from both seats, Hinjili and Kantabanji.”

Laxman Bag of BJP was defeated by only 128 votes in 2019 Assembly election from Kantabanji by Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress. Besides, there are 93,000 Yadav voters in the constituency. In this situation, the former chief minister was knowingly fielded from Kantabanji so that he will be defeated, Das alleged.

“The plan was to elect Pandian as the leader of BJDLP after Naveen’s defeat and install him as the chief minister,” he added.

Meanwhile his wife and former MLA from Bari, Sunanda Das, who resigned from BJD on Tuesday, is likely to join BJP on November 6. After resigning from the BJD, Sunanda targeted the officers’ coterie in the party claiming it had decided the ticket distribution in 2024 elections. “The party president was not in charge,” she had said.

However, BJD is yet to react to the allegations.