BHUBANESWAR: With only three days remaining for the first phase polls in Odisha scheduled on May 13, BJD’s chief election strategist VK Pandian on Thursday asserted that the party will sweep the polls with more than 90 per cent strike rate.
Four LS seats, Berhampur, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and 28 Assembly seats will go to polls in this phase. All eyes are on Berhampur Lok Sabha seat and seven Assembly constituencies in it as it is the home district of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Candidature of Pradeep Panigrahy from the seat has also added to its importance. Panigrahy is pitted against Bhrugu Baxipatra of the BJD in this seat. Pandian urged people to convert the 90 per cent strike rate to 100 per cent. “Your blessings and hard work can make this 100 per cent,” he said. Take the message of development of the chief minister to every corner and make the BJD candidates win the polls, he added.
Ninety per cent strike rate predicted by Pandian will come to 25 out of the 28 Assembly seats. In the 2019 elections, of the four LS seats, BJD had won two, Berhampur and Nabarangpur, while BJP had won the Kalahandi seat and Koraput had gone to Congress.
Out of the 28 Assembly seats, BJD had won 20, BJP four, Congress three and Independent one. Under Berhampur, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur and Berhampur parliamentary constituencies, the BJD had won five Assembly seats each.