BHUBANESWAR: With campaigning coming to an end on Monday for the May 10 Jharsuguda by-election, the heat and dust have settled down leaving it to the voters to decide the fate of the candidates in the fray.
As only 48 hours remain for the voting process to start, the ruling BJD seems to have a distinct edge with the BJP and Congress competing for the second and third position. The sympathy wave seems to have played a major role in favour of BJD candidate Deepali Das, daughter of former health minister Naba Kishore Das whose assassination necessitated the bypoll.
Besides, the strong organisational structure and beneficiaries of the large business network of her father have helped the ruling party to dominate the scene. The BJD, however, had left nothing to chance and appointed a dozen ministers and senior leaders in the four blocks of the constituency to oversee the poll process. Ministers, MLAs and senior party leaders were also engaged at the panchayat level to lead the campaign.
Lastly, chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s address to the voters at a mammoth meeting at Jharsuguda on Sunday seems to have further consolidated its position. The meeting of the chief minister was symbolic to woo the women voters as all the leaders on the dais were women.
The BJD also seems to have got the influential Agria Samaj, which constitutes around 30 per cent of the voters in the constituency, on its side by announcing land and financial assistance for them. “The last-moment change of mind of sizeable Congress voters belonging to the Agria community and shifting alliance to the BJD has further brightened the prospect of the ruling party candidate Deepali Das,” said a poll observer.
Campaign over, BJD seems to have an edge in the Jharsuguda by-election
The Congress candidate Tarun Pandey, son of the three-time MLA Birendra Pandey, hails from the Agria community and was confident of getting a majority vote of his community. But, the situation seems to have changed for him.
A final pre-poll assessment going on the voter's mood, however, revealed that the BJP has improved it position in all four blocks under the Assembly seat but the gap with BJD is still very high.
This by-election, hopefully, the last before the 2024 general elections, is crucial for the BJP on two counts.
It will be another test for the saffron party which has been dreaming to dislodge the Naveen Patnaik government from the state but has not been able to stop the BJD juggernaut from 2009 onward. The second is that this is the fourth by-election in one parliamentary seat of Bargarh represented by Suresh Pujari of the BJP.
The party lost the bypolls in Bijepur in 2019, and Brajarajnagar and Padampur in 2022. The fact remains that though the BJP won the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat in 2019, it lost all the seven Assembly segments under the parliamentary constituency where elections were held simultaneously.
The BJP was never successful in Jharsuguda where the fight was always between the BJD and Congress. The grand old party was relegated to third position after its two-time MLA Naba Kishore Das switched alliance to the BJD before the 2019 election. The BJP was in second position with over 52,000 votes.
DGP reviews security for bypoll
Bhubaneswar: DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal on Monday reviewed the security arrangements for the Jharsuguda by-poll to be held on Wednesday. In a meeting held via video conferencing, Bansal asked officers to make robust security arrangements for the polls.
He also directed to intensify measures like bounding down habitual offenders under sections 107 and 110 of CrPC, seizing illegal arms and illicit liquor and promptly executing non-bailable warrants. Director Intelligence Sanjeeb Panda, ADG Law and Order RK Sharma and other senior officers were present.