BANPUR : As many as nine candidates are in the fray for Chilika Assembly segment but there will be a triangular contest among the BJD, BJP and Congress. While the BJD has fielded former MLA of Begunia segment Prasanta Kumar Jagdev who is an outsider, the BJP candidate is party general secretary Prithwiraj Harichandan and Congress has given ticket to Pradeep Kumar Swain who unsuccessfully contested from this constituency in 2014.
While in 2009, BJD candidate Raghunath Sahoo had defeated his BJP rival Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan, the latter won in 2014 by defeating BJD candidate Raghunath Sahoo by a small margin. Prithwiraj being a local has an edge over his two opponents who are outsiders. All the three candidates have started door to door campaigning to win over voters.