Says ticket rejection is part of a plan to harm Gamangs Shishir

Congressman Shishir Gamang has claimed that the denial of tickets to members of his family was a part of a plot to cause the party to lose the state’s subsequent elections.

In an attempt to get a Congress ticket for the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency, Shishir claimed that candidates received party tickets after agreements reached with them. In response to remarks made by Sarat Pattanayak, the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, about the party’s one-family formula policy, he questioned how four tickets were awarded to Bhujabal Majhi’s family.

Majhi received a ticket for the Lok Sabha constituency of Nabarangpur, while his daughter Lipika received a nomination for the Dabugaon Assembly seat. Additionally, tickets from the Kotpad and Nabarangpur Assembly seats were granted to his kin.

The Gamang family, which includes former chief minister Giridhar Gamang and his wife Hema Gamang, was totally disregarded by the Congress when it issued first phase nominations for eight Lok Sabha and forty-nine Assembly seats. Shishir said that the party has also disregarded a number of these Congress politicians, notably Amita Biswal, the daughter of the late chief minister Hemananda Biswal.

After conferring with his followers, Shishir said he would take the next step and promptly bring the anomalies in the allocation of Congress tickets to the attention of the central leadership. In January 2023, members of the Gamang family were back in Congress.