CUTTACK: Dynastic politics has become synonymous with BJD in Cuttack district which has placed its bets on wards of bigwigs in Banki, Choudwar-Cuttack and Mahanga Assembly segments.
The party has fielded Ankit Pratap Jena, son of legislator Pratap Jena, from Mahanga seat this time. Pratap had made a hat-trick by winning the seat on a BJD ticket in 2009, 2014 and 2019. But with his name being dragged into the Mahanga double-murder case, BJD had to sideline him. The party however did not look far for Pratap’s replacement and nominated Ankit for the seat.
The prestigious Mahanga Assembly constituency, represented by eminent leaders like Mahammad Attahar (Congress), Pradipta Kishore Das (PSP and Janata Party), Surendranath Patnaik (Congress), Biraja Prasad Roy (PSP), Sarat Kar (Utkal Congress, Janata Dal and BJD) Shaik Matlub Ali (Congress), Bikram Keshari Barma (BJD) from 1951 to 2004 had never seen nominations on hereditary basis.
After abolition of Kissannagar Assembly constituency, Pratap who had represented the seat for two terms in 2000 and 2004, was given ticket by BJD to contest from Mahanga in 2009 sidelining both Sarat Kar and Bikram Keshari Barma.
Earlier, BJD which had denied ticket to Banki MLA Pravat Kumar Tripathy and Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Prabhat Ranjan Biswal after they were entangled in chit fund scam had given their sons Devi Ranjan Tripathy and Sauvik Biswal a chance to contest from the respective constituencies in 2019 elections. Though both Devi Ranjan and Sauvik are contesting again, the organisational activities of both the Assembly segments are believed to have managed by both Pravat and Prabhat.
Congress, considered the pioneer of dynastic politics, too has given ticket to Sofia Firdous, daughter of Mohammad Moquim.