BHUBANESWAR: As the three major political parties are gearing up for the Pipili bypoll, the BJP is a step ahead of its opponents BJD and Congress by holding two rounds of discussions on selection of candidate.
“The party, which held its preliminary round of discussion on March 16 in presence of Odisha in-charge Daggubati Purandeswari, is unanimous on its choice. BJP nominee Ashrit Pattanayak, who lost the 2019 poll by a slender margin of 15,786 votes from his nearest BJD rival Pradeep Maharathy, is likely to be given another chance,” sources in the party said.
Ashrit’s candidature will be finalised once his name gets formal approval from the State election committee.
With Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Purandeswari in the city, the party is holding the second and final round of discussion to shortlist probable candidates for onward transmission to the Central election committee, the sources added.
Though a couple of youth leaders are aspirants for party ticket, the changed political situation in Pipili constituency after the demise of BJD heavyweight Maharathy and the hardwork put in by Ashrit to nurse the Assembly segment in the last six months will go in his favour.
Even as Pipili is a BJD stronghold, the saffron party is upbeat and hope to win the seat in the wake of good performance in a recent rural local body by-poll in the constituency.
The win of a BJP sarpanch in Pipili has boosted the confidence of the party which has started believing that the people are disenchanted with the ruling BJD.
Though Ashrit was no match for a veteran like Maharathy, a seven-time MLA, the BJP green horn, however, gave a tough fight to the BJD heavyweight by cornering 41.62 per cent of the popular vote.
Maharathy won the seat with 50.66 per cent of total votes polled.The Congress was reduced to a third place by polling only 5.63 per cent of the votes.