After the death of Rajya Sabha BJD member Kalpataru Das, speculations are rife in the steel city over who would be the choice of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik for the vacant seat. This is despite the election date has not yet been revealed by the CEC.
There will be no contest for the sole seat and a BJD candidate will be elected unopposed.
Time was when two tribal leaders of Sundargarh district Mangala Kissan and Dilip Tirkey were elected to the Rajya Sabha.
After Kissan’s tenure was over, many had expected that Patnaik would send another one from the district as Kissan preferred to be in State politics. But nothing like that happened.
Now, two-time MlA, former Minister and present RDA Chairman Sarada Nayak is a frontrunner from the district for the RS seat. Political pundits here feel that if Patnaik at all thinks to send a leader from Sundargarh then his first choice will be
Nayak. Even after Nayak lost in the 2014 Assembly
election, Patnaik rehabilitated him as the RDA Chairman.
Nayak seems to have impressed the party boss by conducting successful youth conventions and other organisational activities here, and he also has good rapport with a powerful bureaucrat in the Third Floor of the State Secretariat.
Next to Nayak, the other name in talk is Sundargarh Queen and former WODC Chairperson Padmini Shekhar Deo, who keeps good rapport with Patnaik. But one question is still unanswered, why Patnaik asked her to quit the WODC Chairperson post prior to the completion of her tenure.
The other name in circulation is BJD Rourkela district president Anand Mohanty. Since 2004, he has been continuing as the district president. There is every probability of his applying for the RS ticket.