Come November 11, all eyes will be on the assembly election winding up in Bihar. However, several hundred kilometres away, a quiet and small assembly constituency along Odisha’s western corridor—Nuapada—will also have gone to the polls. Although it’s a byelection—necessitated by the untimely demise of its MLA and Biju Janata Dal leader Rajendra Dholakia—it will be of significant political interest for various reasons.
For the BJP, it presents the first electoral challenge after coming to power in the state last year. For the BJD, it’s a matter of prestige as its first electoral test in the opposition. The national party has already gone for the jugular by poaching the sitting legislator’s son, Jay Dholakia, last week. This upset the plans of the regional party, which was looking to cash in on the sympathy wave by fielding Jay. It had even planned to field party chief Naveen Patnaik as the star campaigner. However, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi managed to get Dholakia Junior on his side, tilting the scales.
The Congress, too, has a stake in this seemingly triangular contest because the 2.53-lakh-elector assembly segment falls in the home constituency of its state committee chief and former Lok Sabha member, Bhakta Charan Das, who will have a few points to prove.
Nuapada has chosen between Dholakia Senior and the BJP’s former state president, Basanta Panda, at the last six elections. This time, Panda’s son was in the running for re-nomination despite his loss the last time. However, Jay’s induction has changed the equation and made it more unpredictable.
To this poll pitch add Ghasiram Majhi, a former Congressman whose stock has grown over the last three elections—so much so that he claimed the second spot in 2024 despite contesting as an independent. Amid all this, the BJP will perhaps go into the election with a sense of trepidation. With murmurs of disquiet surfacing within the party, it will be required to present a cohesive face. For the Majhi government, this bypoll is going to be a huge test of popularity and credibility.
