Even as date for election to the Patkura Assembly constituency is yet to be issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the three main political parties, the BJD, the BJP and the Congress, have been campaigning in favour of their respective candidates.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would visit the Baladev Jew Temple in Kendrapada on the Snan Purnima Day on Monday and then hold talks with party leaders over the Patkura election.
“Our party leader and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is coming tomorrow. People of Patkura will certainly
support the BJD candidate as they will get another chance for effecting development in their constituency,” said senior party leader and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare
Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain, who is now camping in Patkura.
Notably, the BJD has fielded Sabitri Agarwalla as its candidate for the seat after its earlier candidate and Sabitri’s husband Bed Prakash Agarwalla died due to old age-related diseases before the scheduled election date on April 18. The election to the seat has been postponed twice since then, once for Agarwalla’s death and then for the Cyclone Fani.
The BJP has also made a strategy to conduct a high-voltage campaigning in favour of its candidate Bijay Mohapatra, who had won the seat four times before the 2000 elections. While senior BJP leader Manmohan Samal is leading the campaigning, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi has already visited some villages and contacted people at their doorsteps.
Keeping his view on preparations to campaign for his party candidate Jayant Mohapatra, PCC president Niranjan Patnaik said, “We have already held meetings to strengthen our party
organisation in Patkura. We held a meeting yesterday and will make all efforts to
win the seat.”