New political equations may emerge in Champua Assembly constituency after joining of Independent sitting MlA Jitu Pattnaik in BJD recently.
Champua constituency includes most of the iron, manganese mines and iron industries for which it has drawn the eyes of all political parties and hence, is considered an important seat. The seat was earlier reserved for the Scheduled Tribe, but was dereserved for the general category in the last elections.
Pattnaik who had led the Congress for more than 25 years contested the elections as a rebel candidate after he was denied ticket from his party last time. He won the elections facing a close contest with the Congress candidate Sanatan Mahakud. In view of the strong wave of the BJD led by Naveen Patnaik, Pattnaik has joined the ruling party with the hope of getting the party ticket for Champua seat. But his possibility of being the BJD candidate may be marred by a couple of factors. Pattnaik is the brother of senior Congress leader Niranjan Pattnaik, while he has mining business in the district. As a mines owner and industrialist, he has been accused of being involved in massive illegal mining and has little support in the district BJD.
Therefore, he will face resistance from the district BJD if he is given the ticket. On the contrary, Kusa Apat, a mining businessmen and vice president of district BJD, is also an aspirant for the Champua seat. He had also contested the last Assembly elections as a rebel candidate. But his close association with Pyarimohan Mohapatra will certainly create hurdle for him to get ticket.
Making assessment of the situation, there is a long list of aspirants for the Champua seat from the BJD. The names of Mitrabhanu Mahakud, a senior party worker and social activist, Rajendra Palei, a corporate social worker, Dhanurjaya laguri, former MlA, Radhakanta Nayak, former ZP vice president, Rina Barik and former ZP vice president are heard to be on the aspirants’ list. The front runners in the list are Pradeep Kumar Das and Rabindra Kumar Das too. Das, an ex-army man, is a senior BJD worker from Champua, while Rabindra Das is a senior BJD leader who held the Joda Municipal Chairman seat from 2008 to 2011.
His efforts to provide public free treatment, a DAV school, Kalyan Mandap and auditorium in alliance with Tata Steel in the mining town have won him public support. Besides, he also enjoys the support of party members too. Sanatan Mahakud, a senior Congress leader, may be repeated as the Congress candidate this time for the seat, while in BJP, Sukesi Oram and Dillip Mishra are the front runners. Since all the three parties are well-rooted, notwithstanding which party fields whom as its candidate, a triangular fight is on cards.