Bijoy Hails ECI Decision On Patkura Polls

Bhubaneswar: BJP leader and MLA candidate Bijoy Mohapatra on Wednesday welcomed the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct elections at Patkura Assembly seat on May 19.

Following the death of BJD candidate and sitting MLA Bed Prakash Agarwalla there was uncertainty over election to the seat, which was to go to polls in the fourth and final phase on April 29. Some feared the election will take long after the final phase of polling, but in a notification on Wednesday, the ECI said that election to Patkura Assembly seat will be held on May 19.

Talking to mediapersons here, the veteran politician said that the people of Patkura feared a conspiracy to further delay the election to this Assembly segment. “With the notification of the Election Commission, they are now are ready to foil any conspiracy by the ruling party,” he said.

Maintaining that the BJD had hatched a conspiracy by giving the ticket to the sitting MLA, who was bed-ridden with serious ailments, he said the sympathy factor will not work in Patkura.

After the ECI notification, in Patkura, Bed Prakash’s son Sanjay Agarwalla expressed his willingness to contest the election. “If the BJD leadership nominates me as its candidate, I will contest from the seat on the organisational strength of the party that my father had built. I will try my best to fulfil my father’s dream,” he told mediapersons.

Asked whether he will be facing a stiff competition from Mohapatra, Sanjay said the former was a seasoned leader, “but his party organization in Patkura is very weak.”