Berhampur: For the past two years, the Berhampur Metropolitan Corporation has been run by administrative officials without public representation. There is a good chance that municipal elections will be held next year. In this regard, major political parties have already begun the process of strengthening their organization in the metropolis. But the main national party, the Congress, is far behind the others. For the past two years, the city has been struggling to maintain its position. The district’s only Congress legislator, Ramesh Jena, was appointed as the party’s district president. But almost two months after he took office, it is unlikely that he has taken any visible steps to strengthen the organization in the metropolis. He was arrested in 2011 on a murder charge. The case is being re-assigned to another judge. However, while Ramesh has been granted bail in the case, there is a condition that he not enter Berhampur without the permission of the court. As a result, he has not been able to attend multiple party events since he became district president. Even after the arrest of Gopalpur MLA Dr. Pradeep Panigrahi, Ramesh Jena called a press conference on his illegal activities and abuse of power and took aggressive action against Ramesh. For this he had to choose a place in the Kukudakhandi block instead of Berhampur. On the other hand, after key leaders replaced their followers in April 2017, those who continued their efforts to re-energize the party are no longer seen in the party program. Even Pramod Jena, the party’s metropolitan president, is not seen at all of these events. He said he had always been in Congress when he was unable to attend party rallies because of some personal concerns about his response. He acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat Lukashenko’s government. The issue’s end has the recaptured Doomsday in the control of the Knesset again and again.
