ROURKELA: Complex religious and ethnic equations play a decisive role in the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat and both Congress and BJD are prodding hard to unlock the keys to challenge Union Minister and four time MP Jual Oram in his turf.
In a conscious strategy to tap the Christian voter segment, the Congress has fielded tribal leader and Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey and his son Rohit Joseph Tirkey from Sundargarh Lok Sabha and Biramitrapur Assembly seats respectively.
Sundargarh Parliamentary constituency comprises Rourkela, RN Pali, Birmitrapur, Bonai, Rajgangpur, Sundargarh and Talsara Assembly segments with a voter strength of 15.9 lakh. While tribals constitute over half of the electorate, Christians with more than 4 lakh voters hold the key.
A Catholic, George has strong backing of the missionaries and Congress hopes to secure support of the Christian community to win the polls. Although Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) had bargained for an alliance with Congress in Birmitrapur, George, who won the seat four times including two as independent in 2009 and 2014, rejected the offer to ensure that the seat remains his pocket borough.
Rohit, in his early 20s, along with his father was given a warm reception on Wednesday at Birmitrapur town by enthusiastic followers. After joining Congress in September last year George has emerged as the tallest tribal leader of grand old party in the district.
He said Rohit had applied for Congress ticket and got it on merit. The tribal leader is confident that Congress would win the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat and all seven Assembly constituencies under it.
The BJD is learnt to have finalised hockey icon and former Rajya Sabha member Dilip Tirkey from Biramitrapur Assembly seat to placate the Christian community. Dilip, also a Catholic, was the BJD Lok Sabha candidate from Sundargarh in 2014 but lost to Oram by a narrow margin of around 18,000
votes.
While the party has opted for former Congress Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal’s daughter Sunita Biswal in a bid to win over tribal voters, it has chosen to field Dilip for the State legislature to bring the sizeable Christian community to its side.
Dilip said the BJD has gained strength in the Birmitrapur segment and results of 2017 rural elections are clear indications. He said with Naveen Patnaik’s clean image and development schemes, BJD’s acceptability has grown manifold in Birmitrapur Assembly segment. “Both Christian and non-Christian communities are attracted to BJD for its sheer performance on development parameters and ability to deliver,” he said.
Meanwhile, the candidate selection has not been a smooth affair for the parties. A section of the Congress is against George’s son while few BJD ticket aspirants and their followers are opposing Dilip’s candidature. It remains to be seen how far both parties succeed to contain dissidence.