BHUBANESWAR: As campaign for the by-poll to Bijepur Assembly seat gets going, the three major political parties - BJD, BJP and Congress - are wary of the role to be played by dissatisfied aspirants for tickets, some of whom have already started making noise which may turn out to be problematic for the party candidates.
Though two prominent aspirants of BJD ticket, former Bargarh MP Prabhas Singh and senior BJD leader Pravat Aditya Mishra, have been included in the list of star campaigners of the party, efforts are on by the poll managers of the ruling party to persuade them. Out of the two aspirants, Singh had openly announced his interest to contest the by-poll. Mishra is a former president of Bargarh district BJD.
Sources in the BJD are, however, confident that the regional outfit will present a united front as the contest has become a prestige issue for the party. The by-poll has been necessitated after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated the seat and retained Hinjili. The Chief Minister had won both the seats in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Naveen is likely to campaign for the party candidate Rita Sahu for two days after the Durga Puja. Senior BJD leaders maintained that his campaign will enable the party candidate’s winning chances.The BJP is also facing the issue of dissatisfied aspirants who have been ignored by the party.
Prominent among them is former MLA Ashok Panigrahi, who has announced his decision not to campaign. Panigrahi had contested a by-poll to Bijepur in 2018 on a BJP ticket but was defeated. The BJP has fielded its candidate in the last election Sanat Gartia.
Congress, which is trying to put up a fight by fielding Dillip Kumar Panda, vice-president of the Bargarh District Congress Committee, is also not free from the rebel problem.Former Minister Ripunath, who wanted a ticket for his son in the by-poll, has criticised the selection of candidate and announced not to campaign for the party candidate.Congress has given charge of election management to nine senior leaders.