The high-voltage campaigning for the Dhamnagar Assembly by-election came to an end on Tuesday with the polling scheduled on November 3. All eyes will be on the results of the by-poll which are to be announced on November 6 after counting of votes on the day.
Though the by-poll is necessitated by the death of sitting BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, for which the saffron party has made serious efforts to retain the seat, the ruling BJD has a challenge to repeat its tradition of grabbing all the earlier by-elections no matter which party had won the constituencies in the general elections.
Political observers are, however, not fully sure about the BJD living up to its glory in Dhamnagar. This is because a rebel of the party, Rajendra Das, a former MLA, has proved to be a strong candidate by joining the fray in protest against the party ticket being allotted to a woman SHG leader, Abanti Das, to emphasise the party’s concept of women empowerment.
The BJD seems to be facing uncertainties even after party supremo Naveen Patnaik’s last-minute virtual-mode appeal to the voters on Monday to elect Abanti so that he himself would take responsibility for the development of Dhamnagar.
While other strong BJD leaders campaigned for their party candidate in a sustained manner, the BJP also mounted a huge show in favour of its nominee Suryavanshi Suraj, son the deceased MLA, to recapture the seat. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and several other BJP leaders repeatedly visited the constituency to influence the electorate to support Suraj.
The Congress, which suffered a drubbing in Dhamnagar in the 2019 general elections by bagging only about 7,000 votes, is expected to improve its performance in the by-poll in which it has chosen a lawyer, Baba Harekrushna Sethi, as its candidate. Party State president Sarat Patnaik led a quite impressive campaign rally on Monday.