PURI: The Puri Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing an interesting battle as two of the principal candidates are fighting the general election on an unusual issue of ‘betrayal’.
Fresh victim of BJD ‘betrayal’, outgoing MP Brajakishore Tripathy is trying hard to capitalise on the sympathy factor. There is a perceptible sympathy wave in his favour after he was denied BJD ticket at the very last moment.
Having never faced such a humiliation in his long political career spanning nearly two decades, Tripathy did not take it lying down. In a swift move, he joined the saffron camp taking the BJD by surprise. He was a perfect catch for the BJP which was in search of a suitable candidate for this Lok Sabha seat.
The saffron party immediately announced his candidature.
A four-time MP and three-time MLA, Tripathy has a clean public image. Even his adversaries in the BJD disapproved the manner in which the party treated him, admit a BJD worker of Puri town. Tripathy, who is trying his luck for the fourth consecutive time, was up against anti-incumbency factor before joining BJP. Now the tide has turned in his favour, said Santosh Nayak, a BJD supporter of Gamhari village under Bramhagiri Assembly segment.
Though the situation is similar for former Congress leader and one-time member of Lok Sabha Pinaki Mishra, he has not been able to convert the Congress betrayal into his advantage.
Nonetheless, BJD nominee Mishra will give a tough fight to Tripathy. Many in the Congress feel that he will corner some Congress vote as he has still many well wishers in the party.
Besides, the nomination of former minister Debendra Mansingh has not gone down well with the grassroots workers of Congress and this is visible from his poor campaigning.
While a virtual straight fight between Tripathy and Mishra is on the card, the latter is heavily banking on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s popularity. The Rs 2-a-kg rice will do the magic in this election, said Babuli Swain, a shopkeeper in Pipli.
Mishra fought the last election on Congress ticket and lost to Tripathy by a margin of over 60,000 votes.
As the old-time foes are facing each other and the Congress candidate is weighed down by intra-party wrangling, it remains to be seen who will be the eventual winner.
