Battle of first-timers in Jharsuguda bypoll
In the last four years, Odisha has witnessed seven bypolls. The eighth is slated for Wednesday when voters choose who represents them from the Jharsuguda Assembly segment. The byelection was necessitated after the shocking murder of sitting Biju Janata Dal MLA and cabinet minister Naba Kishore Das at the hands of a policeman in Brajrajnagar on January 29. Das was a popular leader of the region and represented the seat thrice in a row. Between 1967 and 2019, the Assembly segment saw 13 elections, of which the Congress ended up on the winning side on seven occasions.
However, the tides turned with the BJD coming to power in 2000. Between then and 2019, the party won thrice, including one by Das. And twice before, in 2009 and 2014, he had emerged victorious from the seat on a Congress ticket before he switched to the BJD in 2019 and won handsomely again. A leader of immense political and financial clout, the ruling party had decided to get him on board before the last general elections, which paid rich dividends. Now BJD has fielded his daughter, Deepali Das, to take on Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tankadhar Tripathy and Congress nominee Tarun Pandey. All three candidates are first-timers on the electoral battlefield, though with a long political background. This makes the contest very interesting. On Sunday, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan descended on Jharsuguda to campaign for their parties as the election hit a fever pitch in the western Odisha district.
However, the Jharsuguda fight is not just another byelection. It will be—in all probability—the last poll before the all-important 2024 electoral battle. This makes it a matter of prestige for the ruling party, given the shrill pitch of the Opposition over the murder of the cabinet minister. The BJD would like to continue its victory march. Of the seven bypolls since 2019, it has pocketed six with considerable ease, including one in Balasore which the rival BJP held.
A win at Jharsuguda will signal that the dominant regional party is on track. For the BJP, there is too much at stake. In the Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency, which the party holds, this will be the fourth Assembly bypoll; of them it has lost the last three. Western Odisha is a stronghold of the saffron outfit, and it would like to make amends. Jharsuguda will eventually be a fight between BJD’s election supremacy and BJP’s re-assertion.