After cine stars and sportsperson, IIT alumni and pilots are also testing their electoral fortunes in the State this time.
Satyabrata Prusty is an IIT alumnus to have plunged into the poll fray. A 1999 pass-out of IIT, New Delhi, he is contesting in the Korei Assembly constituency in Jajpur district on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket.The 37-year-old left his job in the software sector after being inspired by Arvind Kejriwal and joined the AAP last year.
“The BJD has failed to provide basic amenities like safe drinking water, healthcare facilities and roads as well as employment to the jobless in the last 14 years of its rule,” said Prusty, who is hoping to garner votes of youths and the intelligentsia.It is high time intellectuals and professionals entered politics and cleaned the mess. Unless people with honesty and integrity are elected to the State Assembly, the situation would not improve, he said.
In this constituency, the BJD has fielded cine star Akash DasNayak, who is a political greenhorn, while the Congress has nominated new face Biswajit Nayak. The BJP has again put up former MlA Sanchita Mohanty.Another candidate, Rajnarayan Mohapatra, who is an Independent, is a pilot by profession. He has studied in the NASA in the US and served as a pilot in Spring Texla America for four years. Besides, he also worked in private Airlines like Air Deccan, Kingfisher and Indigo as a pilot for ten years.
The 38-year-old Mohapatra comes from a political family and his father Congress veteran Sitakanta Mohapatra is a former Barchana MlA and a former Minister. Rajnarayan gave up his pilot’s job last month and entered the fray from Barchana after his father was denied a Congress ticket this time.
He is taking on sitting BJD MlA Amar Prasad Satpathy and is banking on the strong organisation and popularity of his father.