BHUBANESWAR: The Election Commission on Wednesday announced Jharsuguda assembly constituency will go to bypoll on May 10. The seat had fallen vacant following the murder of minister and sitting MLA Naba Kishore Das on January 29. With the poll barely six weeks away, there is little uncertainty in BJD camp over its candidate except for a last minute change of strategy by Chief Minister and party supremo Naveen Patnaik.
Deepali Das, daughter of the minister, is being promoted by the party as its nominee. She has been going round the constituency, meeting voters, attending different programmes and interacting with leaders at the grassroots level for the last one month. Deepali, however, maintained that her family will abide by the decision of the chief minister.
“Whoever is chosen by the chief minister, our family will extend full support. Our preparation will be as per the decision of the CM,” she said and added that he has all along been supportive towards her family.
If Deepali gets BJD ticket, this will be for the second instance daughter of a sitting MLA will be chosen to represent the vacant Assembly seat. The regional outfit had given ticket to Barsha Singh Bariha, daughter of Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha to contest bypoll from the Padampur Assembly seat on December 5.
Deepali likely to be BJD pick
After the EC announced the bypoll schedule, BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra claimed that the ruling party will register a landslide victory in Jharsuguda as it did in Padampur. BJD’s defeat in Dhamnagar by-election in Bhadrak district was an exception, he said adding, the ruling party will prove in Jharsuguda that people of the state are solidly behind it.
According to the schedule announced by the ECI, gazette notification for the bypoll will be issued on April 13. Counting will be held on May 13. The last date for filing of nomination papers is April 20 while scrutiny of the nominations will be held on April 21. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be on April 24. Chief electoral officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal told mediapersons here that with the announcement of the by-election, the model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect in Jharsuguda district.
Out of the over 2.21 lakh electors in the constituency, 11,03,20 voters are male, 11,16,78 are female and 63 belong to the third gender. The CEO said the constituency has 253 polling stations under 206 polling locations.