The distinguished constituency of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, is all set to witness a fierce combat between the Bharatiya Janata Get together, the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal, and the Congress on this yr’s Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, when Lok Sabha and meeting elections had been held concurrently within the state, there was a straight combat between the BJP and BJD for the Bhubaneswar parliamentary seat. The Congress and Left had fought the election in an alliance however Communist Get together of India (Marxist) chief Janardan Pati didn’t make an influence on this constituency. The final time {that a} CPI(M) candidate received from Bhubaneswar was greater than three many years in the past in 1991 when Sivaji Patnaik emerged victorious.
In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik campaigned in Bhubaneswar. BJP candidate, former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi, managed to wrest the seat from the BJD, which had held it for sixteen years with out a break. This was additionally the primary time that the BJP had received the Bhubaneswar seat.
For the 2019 election, the BJD dropped MP Prasanna Kumar Patasani who had received the Bhubaneswar seat 5 successive instances from 1998 to 2014 and nonetheless enjoys a status of by no means having misplaced an election. Patasani was changed with a “contemporary face”, retired IPS officer Arup Patnaik, to tackle former IAS officer Sarangi. Nevertheless, the experiment didn’t work and the BJD paid a heavy value, shedding the celebrated constituency to the BJP. Sarangi defeated Patnaik by a slim margin of almost 24,000 votes. In 2019, the BJP received 8 of Odisha’s 21 Lok Sabha constituencies, up from 1 In 2014
One of many causes behind the BJP wresting the Bhubaneswar constituency from the BJD was the absence of a Congress candidate. Political analysts say that the votes of the Congress had been transferred to the BJP as an alternative of the Left, tilting the scales in favour of the saffron celebration. Although the final time the Congress received this seat was greater than 25 years in the past in 1996, when Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, now a BJD insurgent chief, was elected from right here, the celebration nonetheless enjoys a vote base, although a lot decreased.
In 2019 although, the BJD stamped its dominance within the meeting polls, sweeping all of the seven seats beneath Bhubaneswar: Jayadev, Bhubaneswar Central, Bhubaneswar North, Ekamra-Bhubaneswar, Jatani, Begunia, and Khurda.
Again in 2014, when the Modi wave was sweeping India, in Bhubaneswar, BJD candidate Patasani defeated BJP’s Pruthwiraj Harichandan by a margin of almost 1,89,000 votes. Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate Bijoy Mohanty ended up in third place with 1,45,783 votes.
Within the 2014 parliamentary elections, the BJD received 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies, the BJP 1, and the Congress none. Then, within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJD’s tally dropped to 12, whereas the BJP’s shot as much as 8, and the Congress secured 1 seat. The BJP’s vote share too rose by 23% in simply 5 years between 2014 and 2019. For the primary time in Odisha, there was cut up voting: for Narendra Modi on the Centre and Naveen Patnaik within the state.
Whereas the official checklist of candidates is but to be declared, there’s a buzz in regards to the BJP and BJD’s attainable nominees from Bhubaneswar — MP Aparajita Sarangi and Shreemayee Mishra. Regardless that BJD’s 2019 candidate Arup Patnaik misplaced by a slim margin, the celebration, it seems, has determined to drop him and subject former actor Mishra who’s the celebration normal secretary and an engineering graduate in a bid to regain its misplaced bastion of Bhubaneswar.
In contrast to final time, will the Congress subject a candidate and can there be an alliance of opposition events in Odisha with out the BJP? When requested, state Congress president Sarat Pattanayak mentioned, “Discussions are on with all — CPI, CPI(M), JMM, AAP. Nothing is last but.” On whether or not the Congress would subject a nominee from Bhubaneswar this time, Pattanayak responded, “Undoubtedly, we’ll give a candidate.”
Hitting again at BJP state president Manmohan Samal’s jibe of the Congress being the “quantity 3 celebration who nobody seems to be at”, Pattanayak mentioned, “We misplaced 12 by-elections and we had been in third place in Telangana; so how did we come again to energy? After 24 years in energy in Odisha, how has BJD modified in West Bengal? So, Naveen Patnaik shouldn’t be highly effective and neither is the BJP. We’re positively going to be primary this time. They could underestimate us however I don’t hassle. We’re placing in laborious work on the sales space and gram panchayat ranges. We’re doing our job very strongly this time.”
The Congress has been decreased to 13% vote share within the meeting elections and 16% within the Lok Sabha polls. For the previous 25 years, it has been out of energy in Odisha. Nevertheless, it’s making a decided bid to alter its fortunes within the state. Sunil Kanugolu, the person behind the profitable Congress marketing campaign in Telangana, has already visited Odisha. The celebration has arrange a “battle room” manned by thirty individuals in addition to name centres. Based on sources, high Congress leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, and Sachin Pilot are all set to marketing campaign right here.
In the meantime, the celebration is making an attempt to be seen on the bottom with pitched protests nearly each different day gheraoing the secretariat and the chief minister’s residence Naveen Niwas. The ladies’s wing of the Congress is lively. The celebration’s state president Sarat Pattanayak has walked 2,000 kilometres throughout Odisha within the Bharat Jodo marketing campaign. He additionally pointed to the “good response” of the individuals in the direction of Congress president Kharge’s rally and MP Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra earlier this yr. “We’re not calling anybody, but 15,000-20,000 individuals gathered. Why did they arrive? They’ve watched the BJP and BJD rule for the previous 25 years. For 9 years, BJP-BJD dominated Odisha in an alliance. Even after that, they remained as one. Individuals realise that now. If you happen to vote for BJD, it goes to BJP; for those who vote for BJP, it goes to BJP. BJP gave Ashwini (Vaishnaw) Babu a Rajya Sabha berth and the BJD overtly supported him. The one various is the Congress,” he mentioned.
Pattanayak additionally recalled, “We had simply 10 MLAs in 1990 when Biju Patnaik was the chief minister. I used to be an MP, and Janaki Babu was the PCC president. We campaigned throughout the state and from having simply 10 MLAs within the meeting, we shaped the federal government and Janaki (Ballabh Patnaik) Babu grew to become the chief minister. So, in politics, you can not say ‘second’ or ‘third’. Congress is within the combat. Our combat is towards the BJD. Congress will certainly do higher. We’ll go up from 9 (the present variety of Congress MLAs within the meeting) to 90. Mission 90 will certainly achieve success.”
