With the announcement of Dr Pramod Mallick’s candidature for the Niali Assembly constituency on Tuesday, the ruling BJD has reposed faith in all its MlAs and the lone MP in Cuttack district by giving them tickets again barring the veteran leader Kalindi Behera.
After prolonged deliberations, BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cleared the name of the former surgery professor to contest the elections from Niali again. Being a crucial district in the State’s coastal belt, Cuttack comprising one Parliamentary and nine Assembly constituencies is going to play a vital role in next month’s simultaneous polls.
The district, for its rich history had been getting more leverage in influencing any Government to get the lion’s share for development. But during the last three terms of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD Government, Cuttack has been highly neglected even as the voters here have always rallied behind the regional party ever since it was formed in 1997.
Since 1998, the BJD has been winning the Cuttack lS seat, and in the 2009 elections, all the BJD nominees for the Assembly won here with thumping majorities. But now, the party has a lot at stake in this area for the coming elections because politically mature people here are now apparently determined to rectify the mistakes they have committed earlier.
Although the BJD has re-nominated eight of the nine MlAs again this time, the party has already courted trouble in the Salepur and Cuttack Sadar seats, where party workers are not happy with the candidates’ selection.
The BJD candidates in the Cuttack-Barabati and Cuttack-Choudwar Assembly seats, Debasis Samantaray and Pravat Ranjan Biswal, respectively, are likely to face tough fights from their respective Congress and BJP contestants. The party’s re-nominated candidates in Banki, Badamba and Athagarh Pravat Tripathy, Debi Prasad Mishra and Ranendra Pratap Swain, respectively, are, however, pretty confident to retain their seats for the mild challenges they are going to face from their Congress or BJP rivals.
Given the situation in Assembly constituencies, the BJD is going to face real threat in the lok Sabha elections. People here feel that the party’s lS nominee and sitting MP Bhartruhari Mahtab has failed to live up to their expectations. A rejuvenated BJP, which has fielded former Minister Samir Dey, could break the BJD’s applecart in Cuttack this time,according to observers.