CUTTACK: With just around 48 hours left for third phase elections in Odisha, candidates of all three major political parties have intensified their campaign in Cuttack Sadar Assembly segment.
While BJD has fielded two-time MLA Chandra Sarathi Behera, BJP has nominated Prakash Sethi and Congress Ramachandra Gochhayat, both first timers from the constituency.
Behera has been organising workers’ meets and is banking on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s popularity, whereas Sethi and Gochhayat have made the failure of BJD on several fronts their poll plank.
Cuttack Sadar Assembly seat was reconstituted in 2009 and reserved for SC candidate. It comprises 14 gram panchayats of Nischintakoili block, 23 of Cuttack Sadar and six wards of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC). In 2009, BJD’s Kalindi Charan Behera won the seat by defeating his Congress rival Ashima Mahananda by a margin of 49,344 votes. While Behera had bagged 71,631 votes, Mahananda managed 22,287. BJP’s Dillip Mallick came third securing 15,407 votes.
In 2014, BJD fielded Kalindi’s son Chandra Sarathi who defeated his nearest rival BJP candidate Dillip Mallik by a margin of 25,791 votes. While Behera bagged 71,247 votes, Mallick secured 45,456. Chandra Sekhar Samal of Congress was placed in the third position with 18,271 votes.
In 2019, Chandra Sarathi again fought on a BJD ticket and defeated Mallick by a margin of 26,123 votes. While Chandra Sarathi bagged 86,254 votes, Mallick got 60,128. Congress’ Abhishek Mahananda came third by securing only 6,214 votes.
This time, Chandra Sarathi, who is now a seasoned politician is contesting with the two new faces from BJP and Congress. Apart from fighting anti-incumbency, he is facing a tough task in motivating voters from five of the six wards of CMC. While BJP has won in three wards, two remain with Congress. BJP’s Prakash Sethi, an engineer by profession, left his job in Hyderabad and has been serving people through a platform called Utkal Bikash Parisad for the last five years. High-profile campaigns by union ministers may help him increase his vote share.
Similarly, Gochhayat, a former sarpanch of Bailish Mauza locality and Cuttack Sadar block unit president of Congress is trying his best to bag a majority of 24,000 voters belonging to minority community. This apart, he is banking on the grand old party’s traditional votes.