For the first election to be held for Hindol NAC on April 3, scrutiny was over on Monday leaving 63 candidates in fray.
Now, eligible candidates of different political parties have started their campaign in right earnest. The NAC comprising 16 wards has 8,506 voters.
Though BJD leadership is confident of victory in majority of wards, the party activists are a disturbed lot after Hindol MLA and former Minister Anjali Behera was dropped from the State Cabinet.
However, BJD leadership is optimistic of performing well in the civic body polls due to various welfare programmes launched by Naveen Patnaik Government in the State. Though the party workers are aware of the fact that Behera has been distanced from party leadership, they are glorifying her leadership and popularity as she is the third time MLA from Hindol.
Meanwhile, in BJP, lack of unity and solidarity among party leaders has made it weak to take on ruling BJD in the State.
The activities of Rajya Sabha member and BJP national secretary Dharmendra Pradhan in the are has not gone down well with the party workers. Ignoring district leadership, Pradhan with the help of former Rajya Sabha member Rudra Narayan Pany has been distributing party tickets to NAC candidates.
BJP district president Krushna Chandra Patra said party leadership should consult district leaders before finalising the candidates. Unsuitable candidates may hamper possibility of victory, he added.
Taking advantage of the bickering in BJP, Congress has improved its base over the years in Hindol constituency. Many BJD supporters and workers have also started inclining toward Congress which has been gaining popularity by raising many local issues like irregularities in public distribution system, large scale corruption in development works and murder of former
Hindol block Chairman Nabaghan Sahoo.