BHUBANESWAR: The ensuing panchayat election scheduled for February next year will be an acid test for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik whose Government is embroiled in several scams.Elected for the third time to office with a thumping majority only two years back, Naveen & Co need a miracle to repeat the Assembly poll performance.The growing dissident activities in the party, led by former minister Damodar Rout, are likely to have impact at the local level in some coastal districts.The only public face of the regional outfit, the Chief Minister will have to criss-cross the State campaigning for the candidates.Lack of unity in the Opposition Congress and the declining base of the BJP after its mariginalisation in the last election, will, however, be the saving grace for the Chief Minister.Central neglect and the schemes launched by the State Government from its own resources will be the main poll planks for the party.Strategist and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra has already started moving out to organise the local leaders at the village level.Mohapatra, the brain behind the campaign strategy, had successfully led the BJD to victory in 2009 polls and the 2010 Rajya Sabha election.A career bureaucrat, Mohapatra enjoys the confidence of Naveen.Mohapatra was also close to Naveen’s father Biju Patnaik and was principal secretary to him (chief minister) between 1990 and 1995.A confidant of Naveen, Mohapatra has never been in electoral politics and preferred the safe membership of the Upper House.Though several senior Cabinet ministers will also campaign for the party, they will have little say in finalising the campaign strategy.The BJD will capitalise on Central neglect and Naveen’s charisma to woo the electorate.CONGRESS: The Congress will have several key players who will lead the campaign for the panchayat polls.The campaign will be led by newly-appointed OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik.As the high command is yet to allow the announcement of the new office-bearers of the party, the old officebearers will lead the poll campaign in their respective areas.The strategy for the poll will be finalised by a small team which includes former ministers Narasingh Mishra and Nalini Kanta Mohanty who are close to the OPCC president.Besides, the working presidents __ Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, Bhakta Charan Das and Chandra Sekhar Sahu __ will have a say in the strategy-making.As is reflected in the Congress chargesheet, the campaign will highlight the scams and the failure of the State Government in implementing Central schemes properly.Express News Service Bhubaneswar: The BJP, encouraged by the public response to the anti-corruption rallies organised against the Naveen Patnaik Government in each Assembly segment, has decided to make corruption and non-performance of the Government major issues during the election to the three-tier panchayati raj institutions (PRIs).Each of the 30 zilla parishads is an election zone for the PRIs and a prominent leader of the district has been appointed as zilla pramukh.The zilla pramukh is given overall responsibility starting from selection of candidates to preparation of election strategy, party State president Jual Oram said.Since elections to gram panchayats and panchayat samitis are not fought on party basis, the selection of candidates will be done at the local level.However, the core committee will have the final say on the list of candidates for the ZPs, election to which is fought on party symbols, he said.Meanwhile, a meeting of the zonal pramukhs was held here and now the zonal heads are having a meeting with the mandal and panchayat leaders to finalise the strategies to be adopted during the elections.Members of the State Executive of the party have been asked to assist the zilla pramukhs till the electioneering is over.While a seven-member core committee, headed by Oram, is making plans and preparations for the panchayat elections, the four general secretaries of the party’s State committee are given the charge of the districts.Election charge of Bhadrak, Balasore, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj has been given to Murali Sharma while Nayan Mohanty will look after undivided Cuttack and Puri districts.Pruthviraj Harichandan, one of the general secretaries and son of former minister Biswabhusan Harichandan, is in charge of undivided Ganjam and Koraput districts.The election charge of undivided districts of Balangir, Kalahandi, Sambalpur and Sundargarh is given to former MLA Basanta Panda.The core committee, comprising Harichandan senior, leader of BJP Legislature Party KV Singhdeo, former ministers Bijay Mohapatra and Surama Padhi, former president Suresh Pujari and State organising secretary Panchanan Rout, had a preliminary round of discussion on the panchayat election.Now members of the core committee are attending zonal meetings, Oram said.
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