BALASORE: Even as leaders in most of the Assembly and Parliament constituencies in Orissa are rattled by the BJD-BJP divorce, the BJD ticket aspirants for Simulia in Balasore district seem to be unperturbed.
This is one of the few constituencies in the State for which the BJP will find it difficult to field a candidate as its base in the area is negligible in comparison to BJD and Congress.
Simulia has a tradition of not electing a candidate for two consecutive terms. BJD’s Parshuram Panigrahi and Congress’ Padma Lochan Panda have been elected alternately.
While the Congress is set to field Panda once again, BJD is yet to finalise its candidate. Last time, Panigrahi had lost to Panda despite the high voltage campaign of BJP-BJD reportedly due to intense rivalry among a few of the BJD leaders who failed to get party nomination.
There are five aspirants for the BJD ticket and apart from Panigrahi, district BJD youth wing president Jajati Das, Mahendra Jena and a few others are lobbying for the ticket. While the age factor has started haunting Panigrahi, there is a strong perception among people that Jena joined BJD in 2004 only after he failed to get Congress ticket, the possibility of Das getting the ticket is making the rounds.
As a youth leader, Das has proved his organisational capabilities during the urban body poll in Baripada where he had campaigned along with his party leaders and the BJD came out successful.
Das who commands respect among the locals, has a good political background. He is grandson of the first speaker of Orissa Assembly Mukunda Prasad Das and has been leading the party’s youth wing in the district since 2004.
For the BJP ticket Kirtan Das, a senior lecturer and retired headmaster Bankim Chandra Maharana are in the race. Besides, the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and a few others are also expected to field their candidates.