BHUBANESWAR: Even as the BJD and BJP have launched campaign for election to the Patkura Assembly segment, the date of which is likely to be announced soon, Congress camp is in disarray after the worst-ever performance in the recently held polls.
With president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik resigning from his post after the elections and many senior leaders raising a banner of revolt, the Congress is staring at yet another defeat from the constituency.
Congress was never strong in the constituency and has not won a single election since 1957. Now, it is not in a position to pose a strong challenge to the BJD and BJP candidates in the ensuing election.
Congress has repeated Jayant Mohanty, who unsuccessfully contested the 2014 election from the constituency. While Mohanty had polled 42,138 votes, Bed Prakash Agarwal of BJD had got 89,853 votes.
However, this time Congress is yet to even start preliminary preparations for the election.
Though senior BJD and BJP leaders have already stationed themselves in the constituency for the election, not a single senior leader of Congress has visited Patkura so far.
“In such a situation, Congress votes will either go to the BJD or BJP candidate and the party will be relegated to the third position,” a senior Congress leader said.
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, two Congress MLAs Devendra Sharma and Anshuman Mohanty had lost from Aul and Rajnagar Assembly segments. Besides, former minister Ganeswar Behera of Congress was also defeated by former Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera of BJD from Kendrapara Assembly seat in a close contest.
Sources said in the ensuing election, the Congress candidate will be left to fend for himself amidst the high voltage election campaign of BJD and BJP candidates.