BHUBANESWAR: As the countdown has started for simultaneous polls to Assembly and Lok Sabha in the state, speculations are rife on BJP introducing some new faces by dropping a few sitting members of Parliament and replacing most of the candidates who lost the 2019 polls.
While the picture is still hazy as the list of candidates recommended to the central election committee of the party is known to a select few here, the name of Dhamnagar MLA Suraj Suryabanshi is doing rounds for Bhadrak parliamentary seat.
Suraj, elected to the Assembly for the first time in a bypoll in November last year following the death of his father and former MLA from Dhamnagar Bishnu Charan Sethi, is a front-runner for the Bhadrak Lok Sabha seat which the BJP had lost to Manjulata Mandal of BJD by a margin of 28,791 votes in the last general elections.
Avimanyu Sethi, the son of eight-time MP and former Union minister Arjun Sethi, was BJP’s candidate from Bhadrak and had secured 4,84,254 votes against 5,13,045 by his BJD rival in a multi-cornered contest.
Though Avimanyu is in contention for getting renominated from Bhadrak, sources in the party said Suraj has the backing of state BJP president Manmohan Samal who played a major role in getting him elected in the bypoll. The only time Samal was elected to the Assembly was from Dhamnagar in 2004 and he shared a special bond with late Bishnu Sethi.
As per an internal survey conducted by BJP, Suraj has a good rating as he defeated a confident BJD which won all by-elections since 2019. The other factor that went in favour of Suraj is that he can use the goodwill of his father to break the sizeable votes of Bengalis in Biridi and Chandbali. The Bengali voters overwhelmingly supported the BJD candidate, a Bengali herself, last time.
Asked if he is interested in contesting the Lok Sabha election, Suraj said, “I am new to electoral politics. I am not sure what role the party will ask me to play in future. It is up to the party to decide who fits the bill better.”
BJP sources in Bhadrak said the party has offered Avimanyu an Assembly ticket from Bhandaripokhari which is currently represented by senior BJD leader and former minister Prafulla Samal. It will not be easy for Avimanyu if BJD decides to renominate Samal from the seat despite the recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate.
Badrinarayan Dhal who has been fighting the last two Assembly elections from the seat on a BJP ticket is not happy with the decision to field Avimanyu from Bhandaripokhari.