The Congress and the BJD nominees are locked in a close fight in the Kendrapara Assembly constituency. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste.
BJD nominee Kishore Tarei who is locking horns with Congress’s veteran leader Ganeshwar Behera, had defeated the latter in 2004 Assembly polls in Pattamundai. Now, everybody questions if Tarei would be able to repeat the same this time in KendrapadaIJ
On the contrary, it is also said that Behera may queer the pitch this time to avenge on Tarei for the past defeat. Behera had been defeated by 15,019 votes.In 2009 delimitation process, while 18 gram panchayats of Pattamundai merged with newly formed Rajnagar Assembly segment, 12 gram panchayats merged with Kendrapara Assembly segment. In 2009 elections, Behera as a Congress candidate had also been defeated by BJD’s Sipra Mallick by a margin of 15,931 votes.
So Behera, who had been Pattamundai MlA in 1995 and also a former Minister, has left no stone unturned to win this time and offset his serial defeats of 2000,2004 and 2009.By contrast, Tarei is confident that he will once again be able to defeat Behera with a bigger margin as the BJD wave will be a decisive factor.
The Kendrapara Parliamentary constituency, which is said to be an anti Congress bastion, is expected to once again retain its legacy. The electorates hold Biju babu at great esteem and hence, his son Naveen Patnaik and BJD will continue to maintain the winning streak.
In the last five years, several developmental works were undertaken in the district by the ruling the BJD Government. To provide better communication facilities several pucca roads and bridges were constructed under the Assembly segment whereas the Naveen Government provided basic amenities like health, drinking water facilities and better education to the people of the district. Though some developmental work is yet to be done in the Assembly segment, people have unswerving faith on the BJD that it will keep maintaining the growth momentum in the locality. Hence, the BJD nominees have better prospects here.
On the other hand, Congress’s Behera, stated that the ruling BJD has betrayed the electorates. The party promised before the electorates to carry out developmental works in the Assembly segment during the last elections, but literally they did nothing.
“Neither the Kendrapara municipality road was constructed nor the Haridaspur- Paradip rail project work was completed. Similarly, the Sanskriti Bhawan work, Urdu library work and flood control measures have not been undertaken by the ruling party. Several Government-sponsored poverty alleviation projects have gone awry due to corruption,” said Behera.