Bhubaneswar, April 16: The Balasore Lok Sabha seat in Odisha is poised for another triangular contest as three major political parties have fielded potential candidates:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated Pratap Chandra Sarangi, an ex-Union minister and sitting MP.
The Congress party has fielded Srikant Kumar Jena, a former Union minister.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has chosen Lekhashree Samantasinghar, who was previously associated with the BJP.
Balasore has a history of interesting electoral outcomes, with voters not displaying permanent loyalty to any particular party or candidate.
In 2009, Jena as Congress candidate had won despite receiving only 35.17% of the votes. He defeated his nearest rival, Arun Dey of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), by a margin of 38,900 votes. Kharabela Swain, BJP nominee was the second runner-up with 24.64% of the total 8,92,263 votes polled.
In 2019, BJP’s Pratap Chandra Sarangi emerged victorious, defeating BJD’s Rabindra Kumar Jena by a narrow margin of 12,956 votes. Sarangi received 41.79% of the votes, while Rabindra got 40.62%. Congress candidate Nabajyoti Patnaik secured 15.49% of the votes.
Sarangi, the incumbent BJP MP, expresses confidence in the good work of the BJP-led NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special focus on Odisha’s development.
On the other hand, Jena believes that the development work he carried out in Balasore during his previous tenure will enable him to secure victory
Lekhashree Samantasinghar, the BJD nominee, emphasizes Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s clean image and all-around development
