BHUBANESWAR: The Bargarh Lok Sabha seat had showed in 2019 that split voting was a reality in the state. Candidates of the BJD won from all the seven Assembly segments but the result for Lok Sabha seat came as a surprise. The BJP’s Suresh Pujari, whose track record in electoral politics had nothing much to talk about, defeated BJD stalwart Prasanna Acharya by a margin of nearly 64,000 votes.
This may have led to a change in BJD’s strategy during candidate selection for the Lok Sabha seat this election. The ruling party which did not repose faith in its leaders for taking on BJP candidate Pradeep Purohit, has fielded Parineeta Mishra, wife of former BJP Bargarh district vice-president Susanta Mishra from the seat overlooking the claims of several aspirants.
Parineeta was announced as BJD candidate hours after she joined the regional party along with her husband Susanta here. The choice sparked resentment among a section of BJD leaders including former MP Prabhas Kumar Singh who quit the regional outfit on Monday.
But the fact remains that BJD and BJP have never repeated a candidate in the three elections the constituency has seen after its creation after 2008 delimitation. In fact, BJD veteran Acharya was also not interested to contest the Lok Sabha election and is keen to fight from Rairakhol Assembly seat in Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency.
Despite changing the candidate, voter behaviour cannot be taken for granted. This may have been the reason why BJP dropped sitting MP Suresh Pujari and fielded him from Brajrajnagar Assembly segment which comes within the Lok Sabha seat, political observers said. Pujari had contested from Brajrajnagar Assembly seat unsuccessfully in 2009.
Congress has fielded former MP Sanjay Bhoi from the seat. Bhoi had won the seat in 2009. The party is targeting Kulta votes by fielding Bhoi who belongs to the same caste. Bhoi is also the son of Krupasindhu Bhoi who was a four-time MP from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat and won from Padampur Assembly segment twice. But Congress votes seem to have shifted to BJD and BJP during the last two decades.
The result from the Lok Sabha constituency will mostly depend on how the two major political parties manage discontentment after announcement of the candidates.
