ROURKELA: After the surprise gain in Zilla Parishad (ZP) election in Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, the BJP’s prospects have brightened manifold in Talsara, Sundargarh and Birmitrapur Assembly segments. But, the BJP has to go a long way to regain its past glory in the erstwhile Bonai Assembly segment of Oram.
Sources said, the BJD, which faced a drubbing in this election at the hands of the BJP, had in 2012 won nine of the 14 ZP seats in Talsara and Sundargarh Assembly segments represented by Congress MLAs Prafulla Majhi and Yogesh Singh.
Significantly, BJP had reportedly won 10 of the 14 ZP seats in Talsara and Sundargarh segments spread over Bargaon, Subdega, Balishankara, Lefripara, Hemgir, Sundargarh and Tangarpali blocks.
Sundargarh segment was retained by BJP from 2000 to 2008 and was in a poor third position in 2014 Assembly election largely due to weak candidate selection. BJP has never won in traditional Congress stronghold of Talsara. Yet, in 2014 Majhi of Congress in a close three-pronged contest had won with a lean margin of 1,438 votes against BJD candidate and BJP was placed third with just 4,417 votes behind Majhi.
Sundargarh unit BJP president BK Mishra said, the party’s organisation would be strengthened further and exuded confidence to win the two Assembly segments in 2019.
Although, BJP has never won Birmitrapur segment represented by independent tribal MLA George Tirkey, the BJP since 2014 has been growing stronger under the leadership of former BJP MLA Shankar Oram. In 2014, Oram gained a surprise second place and lost to Tirkey by 11,947 votes. Birmitrapur Assembly segment had also contributed a surprise lead of 18,652 votes in the victory of Jual. In this election, BJP won three of the six ZP seats in Birmitrapur.
Observers viewed that BJP failed to open account in eight ZP seats of Bonai segments. Jual had begun his political career winning Bonai AC in 1990 and 1995, but BJP lost the by-poll to Congress in 1997.
In 2000, BJP’s late Dayanidhi Kishan won, but later switched side to BJD. In 2009 BJP’s Bhimsen Choudhury won Bonai Assembly segment but joined Congress and then BJD. The BJD has won seven of eight ZP seats in Bonai AC.
Jual said, the BJP is poised to win several Assembly seats in 2019 and in Bonai the Saffron party lost narrowly in several ZP seats due to misuse of administrative machinery and use of money power by BJD.