Argus News - Sanjay Das Burma Vs Uma Samantaray: Two BJD Leaders Reach Naveen Niwas After 'Rift' Over Satyabadi 

Bhubaneswar, Dec 28: The alleged rift between two senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders came to fore on Wednesday over the party candidature for the Satyabadi Assembly constituency in Puri district in the ensuing general elections.  

Satyabadi MLA Uma Samantaray and former Brahmagiri MLA Sanjay Das Burma reached Naveen Niwas, resident of BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, as the party's buck stops there.

Earlier in the day, both Das Burma and Samantray were called to BJD headquarters Sankha Bhawan for a meeting which was also attended by the party’s Organisational Secretary Pranab Prakash Das. However, the meeting reportedly failed to solve the alleged impasse.

The development came after a video of Das Burma holding a secret meeting at Dhauli with some party leaders from Satyabadi constituency went viral on social media.

In the video, Das Burma can be heard saying to have got the green signal from the top party leaders to contest the upcoming general elections on BJD ticket from Satyabadi Assembly segment and Uma Samantaray will be contesting from Brahmagiri.

After the video went viral, Samantaray, the sitting MLA of Satyabadi, said to the reporters, “ I am the son of this soil. Our leader is Naveen Patnaik and he will decide who will contest from Satyabadi constituency. I do not want to comment on who is saying what.”

Notably, Sanjay Das Burma had successfully contested from Brahmagiri in 2009 and 2014 on BJD ticket and become a Minister under the Naveen government. However, he lost to BJP in the 2019 Assembly elections from his home truf, Brahmagiri.

On the other hand, Samantaray had become MLA of Satyabadi in 2014 as an independent candidate. Later in 2019, he contested on a BJD ticket and won the seat with a good margin. At present, Samantaray has a strong base in Satyabadi, sources said. 

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