Sitting BJD MP of Puri Pinaki Misra, who is seeking re-election from the constituency, is riding high in the campaign as, among other factors, his rivals in the Congress and the BJD are new to the area.
Misra’s campaigning has been bolstered by a recently-published survey that the high-profile politician-cum-lawyer is the country’s 11th Parliamentarian and Odisha’s first in pursuing parliamentary practices.Misra, who is a two-time MP from the seat, is pitted against Sucharita Mohanty of the Congress and Ashok Sahu of the BJP.While Mohanty, a Delhi-based senior journalist, is a greenhorn in politics, Sahu, who some years ago voluntarily resigned from the Indian Police Service (IPS), though being a senior party leaders, is new to the Puri battle.
In fact, the selection of Sucharita Mohanty as the Congress candidate came as a surprise because she was never active in politics earlier.An otherwise accomplished woman, she has her biggest political asset as the daughter of late Congress veteran Braja Mohan Mohanty, who was an MlA and MP from Puri and occupied the positions of a Minister and Assembly Speaker in the State and a Minister at the Centre.
Mohanty has been working against all odds to reach a goal that seems to be quite a distant one. Her slogan is to bring about ‘Paribartan’ (a change) in the constituency for better days of the constituents.For the BJP’s Sahu, it is not known why he was not fielded by his party in the Kandhamal lS seat, from where he contested last time, though unsuccessfully.Totally knew in Puri, he has the main asset of the Narendra Modi wave in his favour, which may not be sufficient for him to achieve the end.
In contrast, Pinaki Misra is an old horse, especially in the Puri politics, and is quite confident to make a third time as the MP from the prestigious constituency.