BHUBANESWAR: With elections less than a month away, the BJD finds itself in a very difficult situation over announcement of candidates for the remaining 30 Assembly seats as a result of which the fate of several senior leaders of the party hangs in a balance.
The party has announced candidates for 117 Assembly segments in phases. The seats where the BJD has so far failed to finalise its candidates include Jeypore and Barchana represented by senior leaders Rabi Narayan Nanda and Amar Prasad Satpathy respectively.
Election for Jeypore seat is scheduled on May 13, the first phase for Odisha. Delay in finalisation of candidate from this seat has fuelled varied speculations. Nanda is a three-time MLA from Jeypore and a former minister. He, however, lost to Tara Prasad Bahinipati of Congress in 2014 and 2019. Nanda had visited Naveen Niwas along with his supporters during the last week to lobby for ticket, but the state leadership is yet to declare the candidate from the seat. While Congress has renominated Bahinipati, the BJP has also not announced its candidate from the seat.
Both the BJD and BJP seem to be waiting for crossover by senior leaders with the nomination process for the elections starting on Thursday. The BJP is learnt to be looking forward to Nanda switching side if denied a ticket while the BJD is believed to be pushing with a rival party leader, who has already been announced as a candidate. Though talks are going on with the leader concerned for long period now, BJD sources maintained that the deal is yet to be finalised.
The BJD has also not announced its nominee for the Kantabanji Assembly seat which is represented by senior Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja. Though there has been speculation over Saluja resigning from Congress to join BJD, this has not happened so far. Saluja has been renominated by the Congress from the Kantabanji seat.
Senior BJD leader Amar Prasad Satpathy, who has already been elected from the Barchana Assembly seat six times, is also waiting to be renominated. Candidates of several other key constituencies in coastal Odisha including Kendrapara and Balikuda-Erasama are, similarly, yet to be finalised. Former Congress leaders Ganeswar Behera and Chiranjib Biswal who joined BJD recently continue to wait for their candidature from Kendrapara and Balikuda-Erasama seats respectively. They have met with stiff opposition from the local party leaders and organisation forcing the leadership to delay finalisation of their candidature, sources said.
