The by-election for the Kandhamal lok Sabha constituency to be held on October 15 is witnessing a virtual triangular contest involving the ruling BJD, the Congress and the BJP. The election has been necessitated by the death of BJD MP Hemendra Chandra Singh.
While the BJD has fielded Singh’s widow Pratyusha Rajeswari for the by-poll, the BJP and the Congress have respectively fielded former MP Rudra Madhab Ray and former MlA Abhimanyu Behera. Rajeswari is a political greenhorn. Ray (77) was a member of the State Assembly thrice between 1990 and 2009 before getting elected to the lok Sabha on the BJD ticket from Kandhamal in 2009. The BJD, however, denied him the ticket in the 2014 lok Sabha polls and later suspended him for anti-party activities. The BJP has fielded him just after he joined the party.
Behera (59) was a Congress member of the Assembly from the Phulbani seat in 1985-90.
The Kandhamal constituency is made up of seven Assembly segments spread over four districts, Kandhamal, Boudh, Nayagarh and Ganjam and has 11,41,735 voters. Although there are seven candidates in the fray, the contest is mainly confined to the BJD, the Congress and the BJP.
While the BJD is banking on the image of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and a sympathy factor for its widowed candidate, the opposition feels the BJD is facing its worst ever image crisis due to major chit fund and mining scams.
“The way people are responding to our candidate, we are hopeful we will win by a bigger margin this time. People have faith in Naveen Patnaik,” said party spokesman and former Minister Pratap Keshari Deb.
The BJD has deployed over a dozen Ministers and a large number of MlAs to oversee the election campaign. It has organised in the past week several road shows, marches and public meetings.
Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to begin his campaigning for the by-poll from Boudh on Wednesday. The BJP is equally confident of victory in the hustings. “The BJP will win because of a wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi across India,” senior party leader Ashok Sahu claimed, adding, “The declining popularity of the Chief Minister due to the chit fund, mining and land scams will also help us.”
The BJP has roped in two Central Ministers from Odisha, Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, in the campaign. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Uma Bharti are also expected to bolster the saffron party’s electioneering soon. Besides, party in-charge for Odisha Arun Singh joined the campaign on Tuesday.
The main opposition Congress, however, claims that people will reject both the BJD and the BJP. “Voters are showing interest in the Congress. We are hopeful,” State Congress president Jayadev Jena said.
Congress in-charge for Odisha B Hariprasad and Subhankar Sarkar participated in the electioneering on Tuesday.
In the 2014 general elections in Kandhamal lS seat, the BJD secured 4,21,458 votes, leaving the Congress and the BJP in the second and third spots with 2,40,441 and 1,08,744 votes, respectively.