Sourabha Kumar Parida
Bhubaneswar, May 4: Eight Lok Sabha seats in Odisha are up for a fierce contest as candidates of both BJP and BJD have taken the electoral fight as a battle of prestige for themselves.
Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a neck to neck fight between Union Minister and BJP veteran Dharmendra Pradhan and BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das. The Congress has fielded former BJD MP Nagendra Pradhan.
This time, the BJP has renominated its sitting MP Aparajita Sarangi in Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, who had won the 2019 election defeating BJD candidate and former commissioner of Mumbai Police Arup Patnaik by around 23,000 votes.
The BJD has fielded veteran Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray's son Manmath Routray, a local leader. This time, the fight is not going to be easy for Sarangi as Suresh Kumar Routray, a six time MLA from Jatni Assembly constituency of the Lok Sabha seat, is campaigning door to door for his son Manmath. It is reported that he had internally supported Sarangi last time as Congress had not fielded candidate as it had alled with CPM. This time,the Congress has fielded Yasir Nawaz, who will divide the Muslim vote bank of BJD. Thus it will be a high voltage fight between Sarangi and Routray.
Puri Lok Sabha seat this time is also witnessing a big fight between BJP candidate Sambit Patra and former commissione of Mumbai police Arup Patnaik who had keenly fought against bureaucrat-turned-politician Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.
Patra had lost the seat from BJD's Pinaki Mishra by around 11,500 votes. This time, the Congress candidate Sucharita Mohanty has returned her ticket citing insufficient campaign funds from the party. The party had pocketed about 45,000 votes in the seat last time.
Cuttack Lok Sabha seat has also hogged lime light for the fight between BJP candidate, Bhartruhari Mahtab, who has represented the constituency for six consecutive terms, and BJD's Santrupt Misra, the former HR head of Aditya Birla Group who has declared assets worth around Rs 461 crore in his poll affidavit during filing of nomination paper on Friday.
Congress has fielded former minister Suresh Mohapatra in the Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency.
Similarly, it is a battle of prestige for BJP and BJD in Berhampur. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's former close aide Pradeep Panigrahy is contesting as BJP candidate against Bhrugu Baxipatra, who has switched over from BJP to BJD this time.
BJP national president JP Nadda had addressed a public rally in Berhampur on April 28 and PM Modi is scheduled to address a meeting on Monday. It signifies the importance of BJP for Berhampur Parliamentary constituency.
In Balasore, the BJD has fielded former BJP leader Lekhasri Samantsinghar against former Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi. Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena is fighting from this parliamentary constituency on Congress ticket, who had earlier won the seat from 2009 to 2014.
Sundargarh seat is going to witness a fierce fight between BJP's known tribal face and former Union Minister Jual Oram and former Indian Hockey Team captain turned politician, Dilip Tirkey as BJD candidate. Jual had won the seat with a margin of 2.23 lakh votes in 2019.
Similarly, tribal-dominate Mayurbhanj is going to witness a big fight between BJP nominee Naba Charan Majhi and BJD's Sudam Marndi, a Minister in Odisha cabinet and a former JMM leader
