Watch out for small and new political parties, which are out to test the political waters for the first time in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) elections scheduled on February 6.
Even as the State’s three major political parties, the BJD, the Congress and the BJP are preparing their respective roadmaps to occupy the CMC council, the smaller and new political outfits are up with their game plans to play decisive roles in the election.
“The new political outfits like the Odisha Jan Morcha of Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra and the Aama Odisha of media baron Soumya Ranjan Patnaik are definitely going to upset the applecart of the BJD and the Congress, respectively,” said city-based political observer Pradeep Kumar Sahu.
Pyarimohan Mohapatra was removed from the BJD and Patnaik from the Congress last year. In yet another coincidence, both Mohapatra and Patnaik launched the campaigning for their respective candidates here on the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti on Tuesday.
Though both these new parties are going to test their strengths for the first time in the State, the leaders heading these outfits are veteran schemers of electoral politics, Sahu said, adding that the BJP is strategically positioned to benefit out of this situation.
Besides the Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM) and the Aama Odisha (AO), other political parties like the Utkal Bharat and left parties like the CPI(M), the CPI and the SUCI are also going to field their candidates. While the OJM and the AO have decided to field about 35 candidates each for the 59-ward CMC council, the CPI(M), the CPI and the SUCI are going to fight it out in about a dozen wards each.