BHUBANESWAR: Jajpur Lok Sabha constituency has been a traditional stronghold of BJD, like several others in coastal Odisha.
While candidates of the regional outfit have won five elections consecutively from Jajpur since 1999, it is also the home district of BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das and holds a special position in the politics of the party. But this time, the organisational secretary of the party, Das, a three-time MLA from Jajpur Assembly seat, is contesting from Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Speculations are rife that Das may also contest from Korei Assembly seat, considered to be his home ground, from where his father Ashok Das had won five times. The fact that BJD is yet to announce its candidate for Korei has fuelled such rumours in political circles.
While BJD has repeated Sarmistha Sethi from Jajpur Lok Sabha seat, sources in the regional outfit maintained BJP seems to be catching up in the constituency as is evident from the results of 2019 elections. Amiya Kanta Mallick, the BJP candidate in 2019, had polled more than 4.42 lakh votes and was defeated by a margin of a little over one lakh votes.
But the BJP has changed its candidate this time and fielded Rabindra Narayan Behera, a well-known figure in the field of Information Technology who retired as the director of the Odisha unit of National Informatics Centre (NIC) in 2019. Behera, who belongs to Rajendrapur panchayat under Bari Assembly seat had joined BJP after his retirement.
Sources in BJP are confident the party’s vote base has grown in the constituency this time. Besides, the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will further strengthen the performance of the candidate who is a completely new face.
Despite BJD’s solid base on pen and paper, the party’s house does not seem to be in order in Jajpur district. The party has dropped two sitting MLAs, Sunanda Das from Bari and Amar Prasad Satpathy from Barchana. A six-time MLA from Barchana, Satpathy was replaced by film actress Varsha Priyadarshini from the seat. Former Korei MLA and actor Akash Das Nayak has joined the BJP and is the saffron party candidate from the seat. Besides, the party has fielded Sujata Sahu from Jajpur as sitting MLA Das is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Sambalpur.
The Congress has fielded veteran leader Anchal Das, a former MP from the seat. Das had won from the seat in 1996 on a Janata Dal ticket. Congress sources maintain there will be a triangular contest in the constituency because of Anchal’s candidature.
The candidature of Anchal has exposed the fact that the party does not have credible young politicians in its ranks. Congress used to be a big player in the constituency in the past. The party’s candidate Rama Chandra Mallick had won from the constituency in 1998. It now remains to be seen how far can Anchal succeed in keeping intact Congress votes in the constituency.
