Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Anandpur, Mar 22:
About 500 Congress workers in Ghasipura assembly constituency resigned from the party on Friday in protest against the alleged sidelining of senior leader and former PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik by not allotting him a party ticket in the forthcoming elections.
These party workers sent their resignations to the PCC president, Jayadev Jena and also sent copies of these to Sonia Gandhi, president of the AICC. The Congressmen accused the Jena duo - Jayadev and Srikant - of a conspiracy against Niranjan Patnaik.
Among those who resigned from the party are Keonjhar district Congress committee vice-president, Ratikant Baral, district women's Congress president, Pravati Jena and Ghasipura block Youth Congress vice-president Deepak Behera.
Niranjan Patnaik had lost to Badri Narayan Patra of the BJD in the 2009 elections from the newly created Ghasipura constituency after delimitation of assembly constituencies