BHUBANESWAR: The Cuttack Parliamentary constituency, considered the nerve centre of Odisha politics, is all set to witness a tough battle between the BJP and BJD in the ensuing elections.
However, veteran leader Bhartruhari Mahtab who had given a decisive edge to the BJD in all the six Lok Sabha elections since the formation of the regional political party in 1998 is in the rival camp. This time, Mahtab is the BJP’s candidate from this prestigious constituency.
Mahtab is pitted against Santrupt Misra of the BJD, a new face. A top shot from the corporate world, Misra took early retirement as director of the Group HR of the Aditya Birla Group in December, 2023 and joined BJD in February 2024.
BJP sources maintain the tide may turn this time with Mahtab wresting the seat from the BJD for the first time because of his acceptability among the voters across the seven Assembly segments. He is also considered a pride of the state at the national level because of his erudite debates in Parliament in every important subject.
Mahtab’s electoral record from the seat has been impeccable. In the last three LS elections, Mahtab had polled around 50 per cent or more votes irrespective of his opponent, either the BJP or Congress. Interestingly, BJP was not an easy pushover in the constituency in the last election when the saffron party’s nominee Prakash Mishra polled over four lakh votes. The charisma coupled with the reach of Mahtab and the improved situation of BJP gives hope to the saffron party about a turnaround in the party’s fortunes this election.
However, the constituency remains a BJD bastion as it had won from six out of the seven Assembly segments in the last poll. Heavyweights of the BJD like Ranendra Pratap Swain, Debi Prasad Mishra represent Athagarh and Baramba segments in the LS seat. Besides, the Banki and Choudwar-Cuttack seats are represented by Devi Ranjan Tripathy and Souvic Biswal, sons of senior BJD leaders Pravat Tripathy and Prabhat Biswal. It remains to be seen how far their presence can translate for votes for the LS candidates. Misra who is new to electoral politics has intensified campaigning in all segments of the LS seat.
Cuttack used to be a Congress stronghold but the party is yet to announce its candidate for the seat. Veterans like JB Patnaik and Jayanti Patnaik had represented the seat in the past. However, the grand old party has been weakened in the seat as Panchanan Kanungo, the party candidate in the 2019 election polled less than one lakh votes, around 9.42 pc votes.
But election from the Cuttack LS seat will centre around the success or failure of Mahtab. Will he succeed to defeat the BJD’s hold on the seat to emerge victorious can only be known on the counting day.
