DHENKANAL: After six unsuccessful attempts, BJP’s Dhenkanal Lok Sabha (LS) candidate Rudra Narayan Pany will be giving yet another shot at winning the seat in the upcoming elections.
In the 2019 LS polls, the BJP veteran had secured 4.88 lakh votes but lost narrowly to BJD’s Mahesh Sahoo by a margin of 35,412 votes. Though in a lost cause, the number of votes Pany secured was higher than that of seven MPs who emerged victorious in the polls.
Similarly in 2014 elections, Pany had polled 3.16 lakh votes and in 2009, his vote share was 2.8 lakh. Though his vote share increased significantly in each passing election, the 65-year-old leader could not taste electoral success.
Pany first entered the poll fray from Dhenkanal LS seat as a BJP candidate in 1991. The saffron party fielded him in 1996, 2009, 2014 and 2019 from Dhenkanal LS seat. In 1999, he also tried his luck as an independent with no success. In 2006, the BJP leader was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha.
But this time, Pany is hopeful for a victory which has eluded him for more than three decades. He has already launched his poll campaign in Dhenkanal and is meeting voters with his supporters. “My poll campaign is based on the achievements and good works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Though I am yet to win from the LS seat, I have never lost touch with the voters. I have always stood by people at the time of their distress. I think voters will reward me with a win from Dhenkanal this time,” he said.
Pany will be locking horns with BJD candidate Abinash Samal, the nephew of two-time Dhenkanal MLA Sudhir Samal. A doctor by qualification, Abinash will be testing the electoral waters for the first time in the upcoming polls.
Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat comprises seven Assembly segments of Dhenkanal, Hindol, Kamakhyanagar, Parjang, Talcher, Angul and Pallahara.