BJP out to spoil BJD party in Bijepur bypoll

BHUBANESWAR: The fight for the byelection to the Bijepur assembly seat has began in right earnest. Buoyed by the success in the recent elections where the BJP picked up all five Lok Sabha seats in western Odisha, of which Bijepur is a part, the party is hoping to snatch the seat that had elected Naveen Patnaik to the assembly.
With Naveen elected from both Bijepur and Hinjili in the assembly election, he had to vacate one.He chose to retain Hinjili, his traditional seat, necessitating a bypoll in Bijepur.
And given that the constituency had voted for Naveen, the byelection has turned into a prestige battle for the BJD. Even though official notification for the byelection is yet to be issued, the BJD and the BJP have started their groundwork.
BJD insiders said Naveen may meet senior party leaders from western Odisha to discuss strategy for Bijepur after returning from New Delhi on Saturday.
“People of Bijepur have blessed the BJD. The chief minister has assured them that he will personally monitor development works in the constituency. People will bless whoever Naveen decides to nominate for the byelection,” senior BJD leader Kishore Mohanty said.
Naveen has already announced a package for the constituency with focus on housing, water supply, irrigation, healthcare, connectivity and infrastructure.
Interestingly, people in Bijepur will be voting in an assembly election (including bypoll) for the third time in just over a year. In February last year, Rita Sahu won from the constituency for the BJD in a byelection following the death of her husband Subal Sahu, who had won the seat for three successive terms on a Congress ticket.
Rita seems to be the frontrunner for the BJD ticket. She has already started people connect exercises in the constituency. Former Bargarh MP Prabhas Kumar Singh and senior leader Subash Chauhan, who left the BJP to join the BJD ahead of the elections, are also among the contenders.
The BJP too has a number of aspirants. Sanat Kumar Gartia, who got 28.91 per cent votes against Naveen in the recent assembly election, seems to be the frontrunner. Names of Ashok Panigrahi, the BJP candidate in the 2018 byelection and senior leader Pradip Purohit, who lost from adjacent Padampur seat, are also doing the rounds.
Though the party had done well from the region in the Lok Sabha election, the assembly poll didn’t go as planned, with BJP winning eight of the 35 seats in western Odisha with the BJD bagging 22.
Asked about the possible BJP candidate, Gartia said, “In the BJP, the central leadership takes a call on candidature and cadres work to ensure his/her victory.”
The Congress, which polled just 7.75 per cent vote in the recently held assembly election, too has started an exercise to field a suitable candidate.