Odisha BJP Confident Of Retaining Dhamnagar With Higher Margin

Bhubaneswar: A day after fielding Suryabanshi Suraj, son of former MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, for the by-election to Dhamnagar Assembly seat, Odisha BJP on Monday expressed confidence about his victory saying there already is a wave in his favour in the constituency.

Noting that Bishnu Sethi had won from Dhamnagar in Bhadrak district with a good margin in 2019, BJP state vice president Bhrugu Baxipatra claimed that the party will retain the seat with a better margin than the last election.

The party has not only announced its candidate but has already chalked out strategies for the November 3 by-election, while BJD and Congress are yet to finalise their nominees, the senior BJP leader told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

Claiming that there is already a wave in favour of Suraj, he said, “People of Dhamnagar have full faith in our party and Suraj has been working for the constituency for quite some time. He enjoys people’s support.”

All sections of voters, particularly youths of the constituency, will support Suraj in the bypoll, he added.

The BJP on Sunday named Suryabanshi Suraj as its candidate for the byoll which is being held following the demise of his father Bishnu Sethi.

According to reports, there was consensus over Suraj in the saffron party since he was looking after the constituency with Bishnu Sethi not keeping well for most of the time and he had become a familiar face with the constituents. He also will be able to garner the sympathy of voters.

In 2019, Bishnu Sethi won the election by a margin of 4625 votes. While he polled 80,111 votes, Rajendra K Das of BJD got 75,486. While Manmohan Samal of  BJP had won the seat in the 2004 elections, Rajendra Das of BJD was elected from Dhamnagar in 2009 and Muktikanta Mondal of BJD in 2014.

The bypoll is scheduled to be held on November 3. Voters in 31 panchayats in Dhamnagar block, 13 gram panchayats in Tihidi block and 11 wards under the newly constituted Dhamnagar NAC will exercise their adult franchise. The counting of votes and result will be declared on November 6.