Former chief minister Hemananda Biswal on Friday blamed the ignominious defeat of the Congress in Bijepur Assembly by-poll to selection of a candidate who is suspected to have entered in to an understanding with the ruling BJD.

Spilling the beans, Biswal told a local television channel that the committee headed by him to select the candidate for the by-poll had recommended the name of former minister Ripunath Seth. But strangely it was changed at the AICC level and Pranay Sahu was made the candidate, he said.

There are quiet a few people who engineered this and ensured that Seth does not get the ticket. The machinations were such that most of the selection committee members did not even campaign, he added.

It is pertinent to note here that leaders like former union minister Srikanta Jena had openly advocated the candidatureof Pranay Sahu. The former chief minister said there were allegations that Pranay Sahu had tacitly supported the BJP in the panchayat elections last year resulting in victory for the BJP and this time around he is alleged to have negotiated with the ruling BJD.

In the last three days of campaign, the Congress suddenly went silent in the area, he observed. Pranay got only 10,000 votes and lost his deposit in a seat that was won by the Congress thrice in a row since 2004. The Congress candidate Pranay Sahu however dismissed the allegations of Biswal as baseless.

Meanwhile, another former minister Suresh Routray who had alleged that three senior leaders of the party had campaigned against the candidate, was subdued on Friday. Routray said each one of us is responsible for the debacle.

The hapless OPCC president Prasad Harichandan who has presided over the total demolition of the party in the panchayat elections and Bijepur by-election , has sent in his resignation to the AICC.

It may be noted that Prasad Harichandan had, over the last two years, failed to carry everyone with him and several disillusioned Congress leaders and workers have switched over to either the BJP or BJD.

Over the last one year, the demand for removal of the OPCC chief has been voiced by several Congress leaders and MLA’s. AICC president Rahul Gandhi had met over 40 senior Congress leaders and ascertained their views.

More than six months ago he had deputed a three-member AICC team of Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and P Sahu to indulge in another exercise in searching for a replacement to Prasad but since then Rahul Gandhi has failed to take a decision.