The political environment of Pallahara Assembly seat has warmed up due to the ensuing elections. The Congress and the BJP have already announced their candidates but the BJD is yet to finalise the candidate from among a bunch of aspirants.
The delay in BJD choice has sparked uncertainty among the aspirants, workers and voters. Pallahara Assembly seat is under Dhenkanal Lok Sabha Constituency which will go to polls in third phase on April 23. The nomination filing will be completed between March 28 and April 4.
While the BJP has repeated its candidate Ashok Mohanty and Congress has nominated youth president of Dhenakanal unit Subrat Garnayak, BJD workers as well as the general voters want that sitting MLA Mahesh Sahu be repeated by the BJD because of his popularity and pocket votes. But some displeased workers are demanding a new face.
Sahu since 2014 election has gained much popularity amongst the grass root level voters by dint of many development works. In the ticket race in the BJD are Jagamohan Pradhan, Manoj Sahu, Sandeep Pradhan and Dr Santosh Dehury . These aspirants are demanding ticket as locals. Notably, Manoj had secured 13,038 votes in 2014 election contesting as an Independent candidate.