BHUBANESWAR: It has been a long 19 years since Bijay Mohapatra stepped into the State Assembly as a member.
Will he finally be able to make his way into the House will be decided in two days time.
However, as the high voltage campaign for the Patkura Assembly segment came to an end on Thursday, the veteran politician and BJP leader seemed to be up against the same formidable wall of resistance that has kept him out through five successive elections.
Even as there has been a sense of sympathy for him in the constituency this time around, breaching the BJD wall remains as difficult as it was nearly two decades back.
The polls for a single seat being inconsequential to BJD’s standing in the state notwithstanding, the ruling party has thrown its entire power and machinery into the ring to ensure Mohapatra’s defeat.
No less than Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has campaigned in the constituency.
At least two dozen senior ministers and BJD leaders have camped there for the last 15 days to ensure Mohapatra’s defeat despite the ongoing Assembly session.
That the functioning of the government came to a standstill with absent ministers and MLAs, who are standing guard in different areas of the constituency even to the village level, has mattered the least. There has been one mission and only diktat - to brutally crush Mohapatra electorally.
The BJD camp admits to the extent stating that the concentration of party leaders in the constituency is meant to ensure an all-time high margin of victory for the party.
Besides the all-out efforts of the BJD, what has made Mohapatra’s task more difficult is the BJP does not have a machinery and cadre strength in the constituency except in Garadpur block, where he has a strong base.
BJD sources, though, maintained that Garadpur also has been taken over and the party will poll more votes than the BJP there too.
Minister of State for School and Mass Education Sameer Ranjan Dash, who campaigned for the party candidate, said that the victory margin of BJD will be no less than 20,000 to 25,000 votes.
“In Garadpur block, considered to be a stronghold of Mohapatra, our candidate will get more votes. There is no fight in Derabis and Marshaghai blocks,” he asserted.
Senior BJP leader KV Singhdeo, however, said that the BJP is going to win as there is an undercurrent of support for Mohapatra.
Criticising the Chief Minister for campaigning in the constituency, Singhdeo said this has exposed his desperation to keep Mohapatra out of the Assembly.
“He was not confident that his ministers and MLAs can ensure victory for the BJD candidate and had to campaign himself,” he said.
Referring to Naveen’s assurance to Patkura voters that he will look after the constituency personally, Singhdeo asked was he not doing this for the last 20 years.
However, the result of BJD campaign can be known on July 24.
Mohapatra is still capable of causing an upset as voters are not opening up and hold the cards to make him fifth time lucky.