BHUBANESWAR: The stage is set for the third phase polls in Odisha on Saturday in which the fate of several heavyweights will be sealed. All eyes will be on the Sambalpur LS seat where Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is pitted against BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das.
The contest in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri LS seats will also be no less interesting. In Bhubaneswar BJP’s sitting MP Aparajita Sarangi is pitted against Manmath Routray of the BJD while BJP veteran Bhartruhari Mahtab is fighting Santrupt Misra of BJD, a former corporate honcho in Cuttack.
At Puri, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra is fighting Arup Patnaik of the BJD. Besides, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seats will go to polls on the day. Elections will also be held in 42 Assembly seats under these Lok Sabha constituencies.
Presence of heavyweights apart, this phase is important as it will determine which political party will have the lead to enable it to form the government. After this phase, elections will be over in 15 Lok Sabha and 105 Assembly seats. It will be the phase where the main contenders in BJD and BJP will try to consolidate their position.
Leaders of both the BJD and BJP claimed their candidates will do well in this phase. In 2019, BJD had dominated this phase by winning 34 of the 42 Assembly seats. But the situation this time is not similar and BJP expects to make big gains in this round. It had managed only six seats from these in 2019 and Congress had won only two.
Of the six Lok Sabha seats, the BJD had won four - Puri, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar - while Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar had gone to BJP. However, this may not be repeated as the BJD faces a stiff challenge from the BJP in all of the seats.