CUTTACK: As the battle for the ballots for the prestigious Cuttack-Barabati Assembly seat begins to hot up, the heat seems to be growing on BJP stalwart Samir Dey. Having represented the city for three consecutive terms from 1995, Dey is now faced with an uphill task of retaining it for a record fourth time. His main adversary is the BJP’s estranged ally the BJD. Though late to start due to the delay in selecting a candidate to challenge Dey in his home-turf, the party has gone full throttle into the electoral arena. In an attempt to capitalise on the windfall in the recent Cuttack Municipal Corporation polls, BJD candidate Debasish Samantray has begun projecting a vision for transforming the millennium city into a modern metropolis with state-of the-art civic infrastructure and amenities.
Hitting at core issues concerning the populace, Samantray promises devising mechanisms for expansion of the city beyond the rivers of Kathjodi and Mahanadi. A bridge on the Kathjodi at Purighat linking the island on the other side would facilitate greater expansion of the city. The other side comes under CMC and the connectivity would enable development of the untouched area, he says.
He also talks of accelerating sanitation and sewerage development programmes, hitting out at Dey for doing little to alleviate peoples sufferings during his 15-year tenure.
Samantray, who had represented Jagatsinghpur in 2000 and lost the last elections, had to shift to Cuttack as the segment was reserved. And thus, has to fight the ‘outsider’ tag. Though, he shrugs off the issue on the grounds that he was born here and had an active life in the city all through his life.
However, though Samantray banks on the BJD sweep of CMC a couple of months back, it would not be easy going as voter preferences are completely different in the local and assembly polls. With a faithful voter base, mostly among the influential non-Oriya Marwari, Gujarati and Telugu population, the BJP would not be a pushover. The break-up of the alliance by Naveen Patnaik has also not gone down very well with the electorate here. But Dey still has to fight anti-incumbency.