NABARANGPUR: With BJP making serious inroads in Nabarangpur, a tough contest among the three major political parties is on the cards in the four Assembly segments of the district.
The decline in vote share of the BJD and Congress and the increasing support base of the BJP as reflected in the 2017 panchayat polls, when it bagged seven Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats, has become a worry for the two former parties as they get to the drawing board to finalise strategy for the forthcoming General Elections.
Nabarangpur district has four Assembly segments of Nabarangpur, Umerkote, Jharigam and Dabugam, all reserved for ST candidates. In 2014, the BJD virtually swept the district capturing three seats of Nabarangpur, Umerkote and Jharigam while Congress could win only Dabugam and BJP drew a blank.
But things have changed significantly since the last elections with the ruling party losing vote share along with Congress. Umerkote is one constituency where the shift of voter support is most prominent. The BJD had won the seat in 2014 with 37.15 percent (pc) vote share but the rural polls in 2017 saw a dramatic turnaround. BJP vote share jumped to 43.87 pc while BJD fell to 36.21 pc and the Congress pushed to the margins. The saffron party is said to be in an advantageous position in the seat as the elections approach.
Similarly, Jharigam has been the stronghold of BJD, represented by ST and SC Development and Panchayatraj Minister Ramesh Majhi, but the ZP Elections saw BJP improving its support base by garnering 24.64 pc votes.
On the other hand, Dabugam is the only Assembly segment where Congress had managed to keep its vote bank intact since 2009. In 2012 ZP Elections, both BJD and Congress cornered 38.64 and 40.15 pc vote share respectively and almost remained the same in 2014 Assembly elections. However, the rural polls in 2017 saw BJD close in on the vote share of Congress bagging 39.03 per cent of votes against 40.55 per cent of the latter.
The prestigious Nabarangpur Assembly constituency was another Congress bastion but when the seat was reserved for ST in 2009, the grand old party lost ground. The BJD wrested the seat from Congress and has retained it since. However, if the Panchayat polls are any indication, the BJP has made inroads into the seat.
The BJP got 25.81 pc vote share in the ZP elections in the segment while BJD and Congress went down to 41 and 32.92 pc respectively.