BHUBANESWAR: Abinash Samal, the ruling BJD’s surprise candidate in Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat, is a political greenhorn who will be testing the electoral waters for the first time in the upcoming elections.
The 36-year-old may be a novice to politics, but he hails from a popular political family. Abinash is the nephew of incumbent Dhenkanal MLA of BJD Sudhir (Nidhi) Samal, a heavyweight in the region. In fact, it was his uncle Nidhi who introduced him to the BJD earlier in February.
Abinash completed his schooling in Angul and did his Plus Two from a private college in Talcher. He went on to pursue MBBS in Radiology from Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital in Bhubaneswar. For his post graduate degree, he went to Maharajah Institute of Medical Sciences, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. After coming back to Odisha, Abinash was looking after his family business for the last around seven years.
Abinash will enter the poll arena to take on senior BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Rudra Narayan Pani. In 2019, Pani was defeated by BJD candidate Mahesh Sahoo by a slender margin of 35,412 votes. Sahoo had won the Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat with a vote share of 46 per cent while Rudra secured 43 per cent votes. Former union minister KP Singhdeo of the Congress came a distant third by securing only seven per cent of votes.
While BJP has already announced the name of Pani as the party’s candidate for Dhenkanal, the Congress is yet to reveal its nominee for the LS seat. There are seven Assembly seats under Dhenkanal Parliamentary constituency.
Political pundits say the sailing may not be smooth for Abinash since there is a sympathy wave in favour of Rudra who is seen as a luckless candidate by voters. The senior leader will be giving another shot at winning the Dhenkanal LS seat after three unsuccessful attempts.
In order not to let Rudra spoil his chances, Abinash needs to use the political clout of his 62-year-old uncle Nidhi, a two-time MLA who will also be fighting the Assembly election from Dhenkanal Sadar seat on a BJD ticket.