Who could get a berth in the Council of Ministers of the new BJD Government from Baleswar districtIJ This question is doing the rounds here.
The ruling BJD has registered a remarkable victory after winning all Assembly seats except Remuna. The party also snatched the Parliament seat from Congress which is the first victory for the party with its symbol and the winner is Rabindra Jena, a fresh face in politics.
The district has eight Assembly seats. While seven were won by the BJD, there are five new faces like Aswini Patra (Jaleswar), Nityananda Sahu ( Basta), Sukanta Nayak (Nilgiri), Parsuram Dhada (Soro) and Jyotiprakash Panigrahi (Simulia). Ananta Das (Bhograi) and Jiban Pradip Dash (Sadar) are the old leaders who got re-elected this time for a third term.
However, though for Aswini Patra this is his first win on a BJD ticket, earlier, he had been elected to the Assembly twice, once on Janta Dal ticket and once again on BJP ticket. He had joined BJD before the ticket distribution.
Nityanada Sahu, although was elected for the first time to the Assembly, yet he has a vast experience in politics being block chairman and ZP member in the past. Besides, he too filled the gap which was created after former Minister Raghunath Mohanty was denied ticket owing to dowry torture slur on him and his family members. He proved worthy after beating Congress’s Jayanarayan Mohanty.
For the first time, the BJD fielded its candidate for Nilgiri and won the seat. Sukumar Nayak registered a comfortable victory over the nearest rival BJP candidate. Dhada also defeated his Congress rival by a good margin in Soro seat. His win brought an end to the 30 years of Congress hegemony. Jyotiprakash, son of Parsuram Panigrahi, too, won the Simulia seat fighting against Congress’s Padmalochan Panda.
Speculations are rife that Ananta Das, Jiban Pradip Dash and Aswini Patra may be taken in the new ministry by the BJD boss given their experience and clout.