ROURKELA: BJP stalwart Jual Oram and BJD’s sports celebrity-turned politician Dilip Tirkey have returned after a decade to set up a high-octane clash in the prestigious Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency.
Barring the unexpected loss in 2009, Jual, 63, enjoys an impeccable record of five wins out of six contests since 1998 till 2019. The forty-six-year-old Dilip, on the other hand, is yet to register his first electoral victory though he has served as Rajya Sabha Member of the BJD from 2012 to 2018. Against Jual’s vast electoral acumen, Dilip can draw confidence from the fact that he lost to the BJP veteran by a narrow deficit of 18,829 votes in 2014. Both the high profile contestants, however, are brimming with confidence in the build up of an epic clash in 2024.
Observers view the Sundargarh LS fight to be largely a two-pronged contest in absence of any strong candidate from the Congress, adding this is certain to be one of the most watched out clashes with both the BJP and BJD on equally strong footing.
Dilip, a hockey legend and incumbent president of Hockey India, is a household name in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district. His nomination from the cradle of field hockey seems to be a well thought-out strategy in the backdrop of the BJD government successfully hosting the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 and setting up hockey training facilities in all 17 blocks of the district. The ruling party’s plan is to pull the entire chunk of the hockey crazy tribal voters using the iconic hockey player.
A catholic Christian, Dilip visited the church in Sundargarh town on the occasion of Good Friday before kicking off his election campaign on Friday.
“People of Sundargarh have immense support for BJD because of the development and welfare initiatives of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. With the CM’s efforts, the district has earned a global identity with world’s largest hockey stadium at Rourkela and hosting the HWC 2023,” he said.
The hockey great also dealt on health initiatives, high school transformation programme, empowerment of women and youth besides efforts for development of all segments of the society which he said makes BJD the best choice of voters. “The Naveen magic would work in Sundargarh and Odisha,” he asserted.
Jual, a two-time Union Tribal Affairs Minister, feels that there is overwhelming support for BJP across the country and Sundargarh due to the development and welfare programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People firmly believe in ‘Modi Ki Guarantee.’
Sundargarh has been a traditional stronghold of the BJP and Jual in 2019 had polled 5,00,56 votes to win with a record lead of 2.23 lakh votes over BJD’s Sunita Biswal, daughter of former Congress CM Hemanand Biswal.
This time the LS seat goes to poll on May 20 with a total of 15.67 lakh voters including 3.65 lakh young voters. Observers opine that Congress’ traditional votes might split to favour the two arch rivals and young voters would play a decisive role.