May hit ruling party prospects in many constituencies
For BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, selecting candidates for the coming twin elections was no easy job. It involved a lot of brainstorming with close confidants.As of now, the party has brought out its complete list for the 21 lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats for the two phases of elections to be held on April 10 and 17.
The selection of candidates for the second phase of elections to be held in the central and coastal districts was a tight rope walk for the BJD boss. The seats in these districts were sensitive given the large number of contenders. Besides, selecting nominees for these seats means deciding the fate of many veterans and their kin.
It appears winnability was the prime factor for selecting the candidates. Nevertheless, equally important were factors like candidates’ criminal record, loyalty to the party and the BJD boss in light of the May 29, 2012 coup, performance, personal charisma, local lobby, besides weight vis-à-vis candidates of rival parties.
The party faced a difficult situation in respect of selecting candidates in a few selective Assembly seats. When fresh elected Rajya Sabha member AU Singh Deo was recalled to contest from Balangir Assembly constituency, it gave enough signals about the ordeal Patnaik was facing in doing the job. Recalling Dillip Tirkey was necessary to tackle BJP and Congress heavyweights Jual Oram and Hemanand Biswal in Sundargarh. But pulling out Rabinarayan Mohapatra and Sashi Bhusan Behera from Rajya Sabha was probably due to a compelling need to create space in Rajya Sabha in order to rehabilitate a few veteran party colleagues who were denied tickets in their respective seats.
Former Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadai who was denied ticket from his forte Sukinda can be cited as an example. In order to introduce new faces in some of the seats in Jajpur district, neither was Ghadai renominated nor his son got another chance from Korai. Trade Union leader Mayadhar Nayak’s son and cine star Akas was fielded from Korai.
There could be several reasons why Ghadai was dropped. It may be due to his health reason, his suspicious role in the May 29 coup or because the party boss wants him to be in Rajya Sabha.
Similarly, Patnaik does not want to let down a few old leaders who have been denied tickets this elections and may be planning to send them to Rajya Sabha. They are Kalindi Behera, former leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh and former Minister and former BJP State president Bimbadhar Kuanr etc. The last two had joined BJD recently from the Congress and the BJP.
Patnaik let suspense hang on for a considerable amount of time in respect of giving tickets to a handful of controversial leaders like Puri MlA Maheswar Mohanty, Brahmagiri MlA Sanjaya Dasburma, Pipili legislator Pradip Maharathy and Basta MlA Raghunath Mohanty.
Whether the so-called Pyari loyalists like Sarada Nayak, Bibhuti Balbantaray, Anjali Behera, Rabi Pany and Pravat Mallick would be given tickets or not was a big question. But barring Behera, Pany and Balabantray, all others were selected. It gave a message that probably Patnaik laid more stress on their winnability factor than any other traits. Behera and Pany in Dhenkanal and Angul districts had gone unpopular in their constituencies which led to their being discarded.
The three legislators of Puri had also remained in the headlines because of their alleged links to several crimes. Still they stayed put. But the suspense over selection of Raghunath Mohanty lingered till last. It seemed Patnaik had to play a hard ball in deciding his fate. He was dropped at the last moment. Since his Mohanty’s whole family has been entangled in the dowry torture episode, neither the former Minister nor any of his family members was fielded from Basta.
Patnaik denied tickets to as many as 35 sitting MlAs and six MPs. He introduced many new faces, chose to field several cine stars and new entrants in BJD from other parties at the cost of some strong contenders. Ghadai-Kalpataru hiatus is widening; Mohan Jena has reacted sharply to the cancelation of his ticket in Jajpur. Keonjhar BJD is on the boil. Sadar MlA Subarna Nayak and Anadapur MlA Bhagirathi Sethi have doubted Badri Patra’s role in being deprived of tickets. Kusa Apat and several strong aspirants from Champua are opposing Popu Pom Pom’s nomination. There is little doubt that a simmering discontent is now prevailing among a section of BJD leaders across the State, either because they were denied tickets or not fielded from their constituencies of choice. Whether Patnaik’s calculations are right or wrong can be known after election results are out.