BHUBANESWAR: The ruling BJD on Monday appointed observers for all six Assembly constituencies of Puri district. While Pramod Samal has been appointed observer for the Satyabadi and Brahmagiri Assembly segments, Kasinath Rana has been given charge of the Puri and Kakatpur constituencies.
Pratap Chandra Mallik and Bhupesh Chandra Pradhan have been appointed observers for the Pipili and Nimapara segments.
Puri was one of the districts in which the BJP had emerged as a challenge for BJD in the 2019 elections by winning two Assembly seats. Besides, the BJP had also put up a good fight against the ruling party in the Puri Lok Sabha seat in which the saffron party candidate Sambit Patra lost to Pinaki Misra by over only 11,000 votes. BJD had won four out of the six Assembly seats in the district while two had gone to BJP.
Sources in BJD said special focus is being given to Puri to wrest the two Assembly seats from BJP and increase the margin of victory in voting for the Lok Sabha seat in the next elections. Brahmagiri and Puri Assembly seats have become troublesome for the ruling BJD.
While the demise of former minister Maheswar Mohanty was a blow to the BJD as he acted as a balancing factor in the party’s politics in the district, it also created a void in the Puri Assembly segment. A senior leader said the observer will have the crucial task of finding out suitable probable candidates for the Assembly segment.
BJD has rehabilitated former minister Sanjay Dasburma by appointing him as Bhadrak district observer. Dasburma represented Brahmagiri and was defeated by Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra in the 2019 elections.