Riding on the Narendra Modi wave, the three-time MlA and former Minister Samir Dey of the BJP is flexing his muscles for a clash of titans in the Cuttack Parliamentary constituency. An interesting battle is on the cards as candidates of three prominent parties are set for the April 17 fight.
While sitting MP and senior BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab filed his nomination papers last week, cinestar and Congress candidate Aparajita Mohanty submitted her papers on Monday.
But all eyes were on the BJP candidate and the party workers erupted in joy when it was announced that senior party leader Samir Dey would be saffron party’s candidate for the prestigious lS Seat.
Party sources said Dey would file his papers on Wednesday along with the party nominee for the Cuttack-Barabati Assembly segment. The party has not yet decided its candidate for this important Assembly seat.
It is said selecting a candidate for the Cuttack seat has always been troublesome for major political parties. It’s not winners alone from this constituency who make names in political arena; the illustrious losers here too have made great political fortunes later.
Among the winners from Cuttack lS seat, who have excelled further include Harekrushna Mahtab, Nityananda Kanungo, Biju Patnaik, JB Patnaik, Jayanti Patnaik, Sarat Kar, Srikant Jena.
Similarly, the losers from here like Biren Mitra, Trilochan Kanungo, Rabi Ray, KC lenka and Anadi Sahu too have made remarkable presence in both at the State and national levels on different political avatars.
Deeply associated with freedom struggle, the Cuttack seat went to the Congress till 1962. But it was in 1967 that Cuttack voters for the first time returned a non-Congress candidate when advocate Srinibas Mishra won here as the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) candidate.
But the seat soon came back to the Congress in 1971 when JB Patnaik won here defeating Biren Mitra of the erstwhile Utkal Congress. Although the JP wave across the country swayed the Cuttack voters for a period (1977-1980), Patnaik regained the seat in 1980, only to vacate it in March 1981 to become the Chief Minister.
The seat, however, remained with his wife Jayanti Patnaik till 1989 when Srikant Jena as the Janata Dal candidate trounced Jayanti by a margin of over two lakh votes. Jena also retained the seat in 1991, but by the 1996 elections, his popularity had plummeted, for which Biju Patnaik decided to contest here along with the Aska lS seat.
Since Aska had given Biju a bigger margin in 1996, he vacated the Cuttack seat necessitating a by-election here. Biju had picked up editor-turned-politician Bhartruhari Mahtab, son of first Cuttack MP late Harekrushna Mahtab. But the junior Mahtab failed to retain the seat for the JD being defeated by IPS officer-turned-politician Anadi Sahu of the Congress.
Subsequently, after the formation of the BJD under Naveen Patnaik’s leadership, the junior Bhartruhari Mahtab has been winning from here since 1998.