The BJD has not declared its nominee for the Soro Assembly seat as yet. Interestingly, two BJD aspirants one of whom is most likely to get the ticket are no original BJD leaders. Rather, both have crossed over from the Congress.
Parsuram Dhada, who fought against Surendra Parmanik of Congress in BJP ticket last elections in 2009 and lost by a margin of 360 votes only, while has jumped to the BJD, the latter Surendra Parmanik also joined the ruling party a couple of days ago after he was denied ticket by the Congress. New face Mrutyunjay Jena was chosen by the Congress instead. Dhada, a known face in Soro, after quitting the BJP had joined Congress during last UlB elections.
He again deserted the party recently and joined the BJD. An old BJD leader Rakesh Mallick has been aspiring for the party ticket since long, another former police officer Rabindra Jena is lobbying very strong for the ticket from the BJD.
While there are at least 45 strong contenders for the BJD ticket, the party leadership still remains undecided. There is a talk that out of two, Dhada and the sitting MlA Parmanik, one may get ticket. Congress’s Mrutunjay Jena is a new name and has been working for the party after resigning from the service of assistant fire officer. Soro has been a strong base of Congress and veteran Kartik Mohapatra has a strong clout in the constituency.
Mohapatra who represented the seat several times earlier couldn’t contest since last time as the same turned to be a reserved one. Meanwhile, the anxieties among the sitting MlAs of Basta, Sadar and Remuna seats as well as other aspirants are growing as the ruling party is yet to announce the names.