BALANGIR: The Balangir Parliamentary constituency is all set to witness a triangular fight between high profile political families of the State. The constituency comprises seven Assembly seats-Balangir, Patnagarh, Titilagarh, Loisingha and Kantabanji in Balangir and Birmaharajpur and Sonepur in Subarnapur district. The incumbent MP and royal family scion Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo of BJD had defeated his sister-in-law Sangeeta Singh Deo of BJP by a margin of 1,04,299 votes in the 2014 elections. Congress candidate Sarat Pattnaik was in the third position.
Kalikesh and Sangeeta are all set to battle it out again for the seat as they have been renominated by their respective parties for the upcoming polls. Kalikesh is a strong grassroots level leader and was elected earlier as MLA of Saintala before becoming MP of Balangir for two consecutive terms. He is the son of former minister and MP AU Singh Deo, who is a close confidant of Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik.
Sangeeta Singh Deo, who has been elected thrice to the Parliament from the constituency, is the wife of former State BJP president and Leader of the BJP legislature party Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo. Political observers said the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other national leaders to Balangir and Patnagarh will help Sangeeta. KV Singh Deo is contesting the polls from Patnagarh Assembly segment. Analysts believe his public contacts will prove helpful for Sangeeta.
Kalikesh’s brother Arkesh is contesting the polls from Balangir Assembly constituency. Apart from his royal lineage, he will bank heavily on the clean and popular image of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The welfare schemes of the Odisha Government especially PEETHA and KALIA will also have an impact on voters, observers said.
Congress, which was relegated to the third position in the last elections has changed its candidate this time. Samarendra Mishra, son of Leader of Opposition and Balangir MLA Narasingha Mishra, has been field from the seat. Narasingha himself is contesting from Balangir Assembly seat.
Samarendra is grassroots worker and has a clean image. Congress, despite its electoral misses, still has a strong base in the constituency and the recent visit of its National president Rahul Gandhi to the State has infused confidence among the workers. The party will try to revive its traditional vote bank of SC, ST and other backward communities to give a tough fight to its rivals.