BHUBANESWAR: The poll machinery of the ruling BJD has gone on overdrive as the Election Commission of India (ECI) is expected to announce the poll schedule for the Patkura Assembly constituency soon.
Several senior leaders of the BJD have been given charge of different areas in the constituency to ensure victory for the party candidate.
The BJD camp is optimistic about a win for its candidate as in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, its candidate Anubhav Mohanty was ahead of his BJP rival Baijayant Panda by over 6,000 votes.
Sources in the BJD maintain that the margin of victory of its candidate will increase as the entire machinery of the regional outfit will now focus on Patkura.
The Assembly constituency has been divided into three parts, Derabis, Garadpur and Marshaghai and senior leaders have been assigned to a camp in these areas to ensure a convincing victory for the BJD candidate.
While former minister Pratap Deb, who won Assembly polls from Aul with a huge margin and Sanjay Dasburma, also a former minister have been given charge of Derabis area, Works Minister Prafulla Mallik and former minister Ranendra Pratap Swain have been given the responsibility of Garadpur area.
Former minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak has been kept in charge of Marshaghai area. Sources said many other MLAs and party leaders will camp at the panchayat level to ensure an easy victory for BJD candidate.
While BJP has fielded veteran leader Bijay Mohapatra from the seat, Sabitri Agarwala, wife of late Bed Prakash Agarwala is the BJD nominee. Jayant Mohapatra, a new face, is the Congress candidate from the constituency.
Election to the Assembly seat has become a prestige issue for the ruling BJD, particularly Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, which wants to prevent a victory for Mohapatra who has been out of the State Assembly for the last 19 years.
The issue of election to Patkura constituency is also likely to have come up for discussion at an informal meeting of top BJP leaders who were here to attend the review of party’s unimpressive performance in the Assembly polls.
Mohapatra had also met senior party leaders at New Delhi recently to discuss the election.
Mohapatra has represented Patkura four times since 1980 when he won from the segment on Janata Dal (S) Charan Singh ticket.
He won from the segment in 1985 on Janata Party ticket while in 1990 and 1995 polls he was elected on Janata Dal ticket from the constituency.
The ECI had cancelled the Patkura Assembly poll following the death of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwala on April 20 and scheduled the poll on May 19.
However, because of Cyclone Fani, the Commission deferred polls to the Assembly seat again.