OJM expels Pandav; Pandav claims he has ‘resigned’

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 6:

President of Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM) Pyarimohan Mohapatra today expelled well-known youth leader and party’s general secretary-cum-spokesperson Amiya Pandav from the party for ‘anti-party activities.’

A release issued today by the OJM justified the expulsion order saying Pandav had been hobnobbing with leaders of other parties and creating disturbances in OJM. It also said the magazine edited by him had carried a number of articles vilifying OJM leaders.

Pandav, however, said and several other workers of the OJM had ‘resigned’ from the party in protest against the dictatorial style of functioning of president Pyari Mohan Mohapatra.

“We had left the Biju Janata Dal in protest against the lack of internal democracy in the party and then formed the OJM. But now I find that there is no internal democracy in this party either,” Pandav told media persons here.

Mohapatra hit back soon thereafter accusing his former lieutenant of hobnobbing with Ama Odisha Party after being denied a ticket for Rajnagar constituency.

“He wanted the party ticket for Rajnagar. We offered him Aul. But he was insistent on Rajnagar. The fact that somebody is a general secretary does not give him a right to a party ticket and that too from a place of his choosing,” said Mohapatra.

With key party functionaries leaving him and the BJP president having already ruled out an alliance with his party, the OJM president is now in ‘splendid isolation’.