BHUBANESWAR: The tribal dominated Lok Sabha seat is headed for a triangular fight in the ensuing election with the Congress and BJP trying hard to wrest the seat from the BJD which has held the seat for the last two terms.
While the BJP has renominated Balabhadra Majhi from the seat, it will be a role reversal for BJD candidate Pradeep Majhi. Pradeep was the Congress MP from the seat in 2009. But in subsequent two elections in 2014 and 2019, he narrowly missed the victory line and finished second behind BJD candidates Balabhadra Majhi and then Ramesh Chandra Majhi. It remains to be seen whether there will be a turnaround in the fate of Pradeep, as this time he is the candidate of the BJD.
For BJP’s Balabhadra, this will also be a big test. Though he had finished third in the 2019 election, he had polled around 50,000 less than the BJD’s Ramesh and only 8,000 behind Pradeep. Nabarangpur has been a priority seat for the BJP as its candidate Parsuram Majhi was elected twice from the seat in 1999 and 2004. However, the BJP was then in an alliance with the BJD.
The BJP has had a solid base in the LS seat. Parsuram Majhi had polled more than 1.5 lakh votes from the seat in 2009 election without any alliance. In the next election in 2014, Parsuram polled more than 1.38 lakh votes. Sources in the BJP said that the saffron party has a core base of around 1.5 lakh votes in the constituency and the party candidate will have to carry on from this. Observers maintained that the support base of Balabhadra has improved following the visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the constituency last month.
Congress candidate Bhujabal Majhi is also a veteran of many an electoral battle. A three-time MLA from Dabugam, Congress has a chance to make it from the constituency if all the factions join hands. Majhi’s daughter and three other relatives are contesting elections in four out of the seven Assembly segments under the constituency which has given rise to resentment among other leaders who were ticket aspirants from these seats. Besides, denial of ticket to Sishir Gamang, son of former chief minister Giridhar Gamang, has also given rise to resentment among a section of partymen.
The constituency is headed for an intense fight among the three contenders. Who among them will succeed can be known only on the counting day on June 4.
