SAMBALPUR: They share similarities barring political affiliations and experience. The troika fighting for prestigious Sambalpur Assembly segment have same surname, neighbours and live in same locality of Nandpada in Sambalpur town.
Meet Jayanarayan Mishra, sitting BJP MLA and BJP nominee, Sureshswar Mishra, Congress candidate and president of Sambalpur District Congress Committee (SDCC), and social worker Kalpana Mishra, who has filed her nomination papers as an Independent candidate supported by Samruddha Odisha.
A political heavyweight and seasoned politician, Jayanarayan will be fighting his fifth election.
And if he retains the seat, it will be hat-trick for him after having won the 2000 and 2004 polls.
The most experienced among the trio, Mishra would be helped by absence of BJD organization in the Assembly segment.
After entering into an alliance with BJD, NCP has fielded Siddharta Das.
Das had unsuccessfully contested the direct election to the post of chairman of municipality in 1992 besides Assembly polls once. He has been a party hopper beginning his career with the CPI(M).
Later he joined OGP and then NCP.
Congress nominee Sureshswar is a post graduate in Chemistry besides holding a degree in law.
He had lost the poll for councillor of Sambalpur Municipality from his very own locality and is fighting Assembly polls for a first time.
Yet Jayanarayan is taking no chances being aware of the change in boundary and anti-incumbency factor. Political observers feel that right candidate by the Congress would have made things difficult for Jayanarayan.