ROURKELA : Rejection of the candidature of the Congress-backed JMM candidate and former MLA Nihar Surin from the Birmitrapur (ST) Assembly constituency (AC) in Sundargarh district appears to have abruptly tilted the balance in favour of the BJD.
Till this development, the BJD was worried that JMM would heavily dent the Christian votes to eventually damage the winning prospect of BJD’s parachute candidate Rohit Joseph Tirkey, who has still not been accepted by an influential section of the BJD rank and file.
Accepting rejection, Nihar explained that his nomination papers contained names of two proposers instead of 10 which is why his candidacy was rejected. “Since JMM is not a recognised party in Odisha, my nomination should have been backed by 10 proposers as is done in the case of Independent candidates. Before submission of the nomination papers, I had insisted my lawyer for 10 proposers, but I was told only two proposers were needed,” elaborated Nihar.
During submission of papers, the returning officer (RO) for Birmitrapur AC issued an acknowledgement stating all necessary documents were received. The JMM nominee claimed that since he was doubtful about the number of proposers, he had also approached the Birmitrapur RO and Panposh additional sub-collector Saroj Mishra to accept another set of nomination but he refused citing nomination filing time was over.
With this development, the fight is now two-pronged between sitting BJP legislator Shankar Oram and BJD’s Rohit, son of four-time Birmitrapur MLA and firebrand tribal leader George Tirkey. The BJD dramatically overlooking the fierce opposition from within had taken Rohit in the party and made him the candidate, while George was told to support the BJD from outside.
However, currently there is strong resentment among the JMM rank and file for two reasons. First, Nihar was imposed on them and second, cancellation of Nihar’s candidature. The JMM supporters who felt betrayed, claim the development will stop splitting of decisive Christian votes.
Nihar, a former MLA of JMM, had switched over to BJD after losing from the Birmitrapur AC in 2009. Opposing Rohit’s nomination, Nihar had quit the BJD on April 7 and bypassing the JMM’s district unit, had obtained ticket from party chief Shibu Soren.
Estimating the JMM-Congress combination of having minimum of 25,000 votes, mostly from the Christians, the BJD insiders now predict that majority of the votes would go to the BJD. Nihar denied the allegation that he may have been gained over by the BJD and claimed that majority of the JMM and Congress voters still dislike Rohit and his father, adding the JMM would ensure its votes go to some suitable Independent candidate.