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Journalism of Courage
BHUBANESWAR, FEBRUARY 6: Eight Congress leaders, including former Panchayat Raj and Law minister Raghunath Patnaik, were on Sunday suspended from the party for six years for anti-party activities.
Announcing the decision at a news conference here, party spokesman Arya Kumar Gyanendra said these leaders were suspended from the primary membership of the party by Pradesh Congress chief J B Patnaik as they defied the party guidelines and had entered the fray as rebel candidates for the coming Assembly elections.
The Congress leaders suspended were Raghunath Patnaik (Jeypore), former MLA Jagamohan Nayak (Junagarh), Dingarlal Nayar (Bhawanipatna), Bijaya Sabar (Gunupur), Sarada Nayak (Rourkela), Batakrushna Patnaik (Dhenkanal), Prafulla Kumar Bhanja (Gondia) and vice-chairman of Kendrapara Zilla Parishad Alekh Jena.
All of them except Jena had entered the fray as rebel Congress candidates for the first phase of Assembly election scheduled on February 17. Jena had been suspended as party nominee after Ministerof State for Higher Education, Public Grievances and Pension Administration Ganeswar Behera lodged a formal complaint against Jena for openly campaigning against him in the constituency.
Gyanendra said about 12 rebel Congress candidates had been found contesting the Assembly elections. He said efforts are on to persuade the rest of the rebel candidates to withdraw from the fray or face suspension.
