There is election fever in Ganjam, the largest populated district and the home turf of Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, as the upcoming general election and State Assembly election are drawing close.
Since last few days, there is a wide speculation as to whom the BJD supremo may choose his party nominee for the prestigious Brahmapur Parliamentary Constituency, once represented by late Prime Minister PV Narasingh Rao in 1996.
Former Deputy Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly and Member, State Planning Board, Ram Chandra Panda and former Union Minister and erstwhile Congress leader Chandra Sekhar Sahu are the top contenders.
Ironically, both Panda and Sahu are grass root level leaders and are in politics since their student career. Significantly, Panda fought for the cause of farmers since his student days when demanding compensation to farmers for chemical gas pollution in Ganjam town.
Similarly, Sahu was the former president of Khallikote College Students’ Union in early 1980s, while Panda was a most vibrant student leader of 1970s who led country’s first anti pollution movement in Ganjam and was imprisoned along with more than 400 youths in a single day.
Panda got elected to Odisha Legislative Assembly in 1999 and became Deputy Speaker (2000-2004).
He did massive development works in Chatrapur Assembly Constituency which was once a nerve center of the communists and now is a reserved seat. Panda resigned from erstwhile Janata Dal in 1995 protesting its alliance with Congress. He was district president as well as secretary of erstwhile Janata Dal during Bijubabu’s Government. Subsequently he was in the BJP.
Sahu was the Chairman of the erstwhile Brahmapur Municipality and got elected from Brahmapur Parliamentary Constituency in 2004 and became a Minister of State in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet during UPA regime. But unfortunately, he could not stand up to public expectations and consequently lost 2009 and 2014 general elections, feel observers here.
His contributions for Brahmapur Parliamentary Constituency also remain invisible. He too was the general secretary of OPCC in 1997.
Sahu and Panda contested from Brahmapur Parliamentary Constituency in 2014 election from Congress and BJP respectively. While many BJP candidates lost their deposits, Panda succeeded in garnering substantial votes.
Following his joining the BJD, Panda was made Member of State Planning Board.
Of late, he has been assigned as BJD coordinator of Gajapati district. \Sahu has been assigned the position of observer of undivided Koraput district of the BJD.
It may be recalled that Sahu had unsuccessfully contested against Naveen Patnaik in the 1997-98 general election from the Aska Parliamentary constituency. On the other hand, Panda’s political epicenter remains both at Chatrapur and Brahmapur from where he had launched the historic Rushikulya Banchao movement in 2007.
There is also a section of observers who believe that both Panda and Sahu may be fielded from Brahmapur and Aska Parliamentary seats respectively. Some are of the opinion that the nomination of Panda from Brahmapur seat would provide good dividends as he has a strong base in Chhatrapur AC