Out of six Assembly constituencies in Keonjhar district, minerals-rich Champua, like earlier election years, is also witnessing an expensive election battle this time.
The constituency was converted from an ST to general seat in 2009, in which year a rich mine owner, Jitu Patnaik, won the seat as an Independent candidate defeating Congress nominee Sanatan Mahakud by only 157 votes. Later Patnaik joined the BJD. Unfortunately, the BJD fielded film actor Papu Pompom in 2014 elections. But Mahakud, who fought election as an Independent candidate that year, won the seat by getting 69,634 votes, leaving rival BJD candidate Kusa Apat and Papu in the second and third position, respectively.
This election, the BJD and the BJP declared party candidates very late, leaving party workers a bit disturbed. The BJD has fielded Meenakshi Mahanta, wife of Joda Truck Owners’ Association president Bhakta Mahanta, as its candidate. She has the support of sitting MLA Sanatan Mahakud.
BJP general secretary Murali Manohar Sharma is contesting as the party candidate. But BJP ticket aspirant Sumanta Tripathy, a mining businessman, has filed papers as an Independent nominee. Jadumani Barik, a mining transporter, has been fielded by the Congress. With threes three, a total of 16 candidates are contesting the Champua Assembly seat and most of them are millionaires.
Sanatan, whose properties and income have multiplied many times through his Social trust, has kept about 10,000 families to his side by way of distributing bhata in different forms. Now, he is steering campaign for the BJD nominee. BJD ticket aspirants Jitu Pattnaik, Kusa Apat, Rina Naik, Radhakanta Nayak and others seem uncomfortable with party candidate Meenakshi.
BJP rebel Sumanta, who has been in touch with people for the last two years, is likely to divide the BJP votes and damage winning prospects of party candidate Murali.
It was seen during previous elections that local issues hardly mattered to innocent rural people and money played vital role in elections to win the seat. This year also, the rich candidates have opened their coffers to win voters’ confidence, and Sanatan, who backs the BJD candidate, is ahead of others in this race. His support base and money are expected to be deciding factors.
