The two major names in the State politics, Bijay Mohapatra and Srikant Jena, who were close aides of their mentor late Biju Patnaik, are back in electoral fray this time too to settle scores with Biju’s son Naveen Patnaik.
While Jena is seeking re-election as the Congress candidate from the Baleswar lok Sabha seat, Mohapatra, who is out of the Assembly since 2000, is all set to try his luck as the BJP nominee from the Mahakalpada Assembly constituency in Kendrapada district. Jena, who was reluctant to again contest from Baleswar, finally agreed to do so after the Congress high command announced Dharanidhar Nayak as the party’s candidate for the Kendrapada lok Sabha seat, to which Jena was reportedly trying to shift as it is his native area.
Bijay Mohapatra, who is yet to forget the backstabbing done to him by Naveen Patnaik by depriving him of BJD ticket for the Patkura Assembly seat at the eleventh hour in the 2000 elections, is expected to be a formidable rival of the BJD’s candidate Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak in Mahakalpada.
Naveen’s big foes Srikant, Bijay back in fray Nayak had defeated Mohapatra in the Patkura Assembly seat in the same district in the 2004 elections before shifting to Mahakalpada in 2009. Mohapatra had also failed to win from Patkura in 2009 being defeated by his BJD rival Bed Prakash Agrawal.
Interestingly, Naveen Patnaik delayed allotting the BJD ticket to Agrawal till Tuesday as he waited to be sure as to wherefrom Mohapatra would be the candidate. Patnaik, BJD sources said, would not have re-nominated ageing Agrawal for Patkura if Mohapatra had become the BJP nominee and, instead, would have chosen a stronger BJD rival.
In fact, Patnaik is known to be hell-bent on not letting Mohapatra come to the Assembly for the latter’s obvious aggressive role as an MlA both in and outside the legislature. For that matter, Patnaik is also wary of Congress leader Narasingha Mishra’s entry into the Assembly for his proven effective role as a member. It was for this reason that Patnaik recalled recently-elected Rajya Sabha member AU Singh Deo to defend his Balangir Assembly seat, where Mishra is the candidate this time.