Considered a BJD fortress after 2009 polls, the district portrays a different picture this time at least in two Assembly segments because of rebels. Added to this, the tussle for supremacy between two former BJD ministers Kalpataru Das and Prafulla Ghadei seems to have changed the ruling party’s poll equation.
Denied tickets from BJD, two rebel candidates in Barachana and Sukinda Assembly segments this time may queer party’s pitch to attain 100 per cent success like last time. It had won all the seven Assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat from the district in 2009.
Four-time legislator and BJD nominee Amar Prasad Satpathy who is contesting against Congress’ Janmejaya Lenka in Barachana Assembly seat is facing a serious trouble because of Amar Nayak. Nayak too was an aspirant for BJD ticket but jumped into the fray as an Independent candidate after being denied party’s nomination.
Lenka had unsuccessfully contested as an Independent candidate after being denied a Congress ticket in 2009 and lost to Satpathy who was then an NCP nominee, as the party then had an alliance with BJD.
Satpathy won in 2009 because of the Congress vote division. Lenka who contested as a rebel against the official candidate Sitakanta Mohapatra of Congress had polled over 25,500 votes which facilitated Satpathy’s
victory. However, Satpathy is hopeful of getting reelected banking on BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s popularity. Even the Chief Minister campaigned for him.
Many feel Nayak may spoil Satpathy’s chances as he can corner a sizeable number of BJD votes in his favour. Incidentally, Lenka too confronts a similar problem from a Congress rebel.
Similar is the scene in Sukinda Assembly segment held by former minister Prafulla Ghadei of BJD since 1995. Dropped from the cabinet and denied party ticket this time after Ghadei fell from Naveen’s grace, his son, Priti Ranjan, a sitting party MLA from adjacent Korei, was chosen as party’s nominee from here to accommodate actor Akash Das Nayak in Korei.
Pritiranjan has locked horns with his father’s arch rival Sarat Chandra Rout of Congress in Sukinda.
But, candidature of BJD rebel Pradeep Balsamant alias Tutu as an Independent is giving Ghadei duo sleepless nights.
Balsamant had a long association with BJD and he was an aspirant for party ticket for the ensuing polls after senior Ghadei was sidelined.
The rebel candidate has substantial support in mining area and is likely to poll a large chunk of BJD votes thus giving Congress’ Rout an edge who had lost to Prafulla by a margin of 2400 votes in 2009.
The infighting within the BJD, all starting from the rivalry between Prafulla Ghadei and Kalpataru Das for supremacy, and the presence of the two rebel candidates are bound to reflect in the ensuing polls, feel observers.