Bhubaneswar: Turncoats are having a field day in Odisha and former state BJP vice-president Lekhasri Samantsinghar is the latest entrant to this list after being nominated from Balasore parliamentary constituency on BJD ticket.
Lekhasri is the 8th turncoat to have made it to the BJD list of 21 MP candidates. With her nomination, the party also fulfilled its promise to field 33% women candidates in Lok Sabha elections, a trend which it had started in 2019.
While partyhopping has become the flavour of the poll season in Odisha, failure of pre-poll alliance talks between BJP and BJD intensified the process of migration. The BJD, which in the past had never been so vulnerable to the phenomenon of ‘ayaram-gayaram‘, saw several prominent leaders switching loyalty while it welcomed defectors from other parties with open arms and also rewarded them with tickets.
The first list of 9 MP candidates announced on March 27 included three defectors Pradeep Majhi (Congress), Anshuman Mohanty (Congress) and Manmath Routray (Congress). It also saw two sitting MPs – Anubhav Mohanty (Kendrapada) and Ramesh Chandra Majhi (Nabarangpur) being axed.
Pradeep Majhi has replaced Ramesh Majhi, who instead has been fielded from Jharigam assembly seat, which he had represented thrice earlier (2004, 2009 and 2014). The former MP had joined BJD in 2021 after quitting Congress. BJP’s Balabhadra Majhi and Congress’ Bhujabal Majhi are also in the fray.
Former Congress MLA Anshuman, who joined the regional party on February 16, was rewarded with Kendrapada seat, while Manmath Routray, the younger son of 6-time Jatni MLA Suresh Routray, earned a nomination for Bhubaneswar LS seat within hours of being inducted into the party fold.
Anshuman will take on BJP stalwart Baijayant Jay Panda in Kendrapada while Manmath is pitted against sitting BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi in Bhubaneswar.
The third list released on April 3 included four defectors and only one sitting MP. Bhrugu Baxipatra was rewarded with Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, hours after he snapped his 23-year-old ties with BJP and joined the Naveen Patnaik-led party, while the sitting MP Chandrashekar Sahu was shifted to an organisational position and appointed chairperson of the party’s election manifesto committee. The Berhampur seat which will witness a battle of turncoats with BJP having fielded Pradeep Panigrahi, the expelled BJD leader who defected to the saffron party in February this year. Rashmi Ranjan Patnaik of Congress is also in the fray.
Similarly, Parineeta Mishra was declared the ruling party’s candidate from Bargarh within a couple of hours of her husband Sushant Mishra, a BJP leader, joining the BJD. She is pitted agains Pradeep Purohit of BJP and Sanjay Bhoi of Congress.
Surendra Singh Bhoi, a three-time MLA and former minister who joined the regional party after being in the Congress for over 38 years, was rewarded with a ticket to contest from Balangir LS seat, which will witness a clash between commoners and royalty with sitting BJP MP Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo again in the fray. The Congress has fielded popular actor Manoj Mishra from the seat.
Another former Congress MLA, Dhanurjay Siddu, got the ticket for Keonjhar LS seat. He had joined the BJD in December 2021. The BJP has fielded Ananta Nayak from the seat, which is considered to a BJD stronghold.
There was pregnant pause before the party nominated Lekhasri from Balasore on April 11. She joined the BJD on April 7. She is pitted against former Union minister and sitting MP Pratap Sarangi.
the ticket to several turncoats apparently because it had not adequately groomed potential candidates from within the party for the LS polls. “Its focus understandably has been on the Assembly elections and, in the process it has not done enough exercise on the LS nominees, forcing it to go for new faces, including at places turncoats. It has also felt compelled to accommodate new entrants, especially party-hoppers, who must have been given some kind of an assurance for ticket before embracing the BJD,” Mishra said.
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