Cuttack Conundrum: Can Ex-DGP Queer Five-Term MP’s Pitch?

Bhubaneswar: The BJP seems poised to make it count this time as former top cop Prakash Mishra takes on BJD’s five-time MP Bhatruhari Mahatab for Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency.

BJP national president Amit Shah conducted over 3-km long roadshow in the Millennium City on April 17 to bolster the party’s prospects in this prestigious constituency, which is going to polls in the third-phase on April 23.

Mishra, a retired IPS officer and former Odisha DGP, is sure to give a stiff competition to Mahtab, who has the anti-incumbency sword hanging over his head. The Congress has fielded former minister Panchanan Kanungo, who exited the ruling BJD over a decade ago and joined the grand old party in January this year, from this seat.

Mishra whose removal from the DGP post in 2014 had snowballed into a major political controversy, is riding high on the soaring popularity of Modi. The former CRPF DG had earlier praised PM Modi for his concern for national security and India’s response to Pulwama terror strike. “The governance in Odisha has reached a new low. It’s time to change the incumbent Government here and build a new Odisha,” he said after joining the saffron party in March this year.

Though a novice in politics, his ‘honest officer’ image can work in his favour.

Though considered a BJD stronghold with the party winning the seat since 1998 and the erstwhile Janata Dal the previous three elections (1996,1991,1989), the BJP made inroads into the constituency by bagging all the four Zilla Parisad seats of Badamba in the 2017 three-tier panchayat elections. It also managed to open its account in other Assembly segments – Banki, Athagarh, Barabati-Cuttack, Choudwar-Cuttack, Cuttack Sadar and Khandapada.

Therefore, it will be no cakewalk for Mahtab, who has been winning from the prestigious Lok Sabha constituency consecutively and almost effortlessly since 1998. In 2014 polls, the BJD parliamentary party leader defeated Aparajita Mohanty of Congress by a whopping margin of 3,06,762 votes.

However, anti-incumbency sentiments, opined political observers, runs high here with people of the constituency having a lot of grievances which were not addressed during the BJD regime. His ‘inaccessible’ image can also prove to be his nemesis.

The other thing that can go against him is the decision of the party to field sons of chit fund scam-tainted Prabhat Tripthy in Banki and Prabhat Biswal in Choudwar-Cuttack. The voter fatigue factor might also go against Mahatab.

However, Mahtab seems to be relying heavily on Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s popularity and clean image, which he feels will fetch him votes.

This is no less than a comeback in active politics for Kanungo, who was minister of state for finance in the BJD-BJP alliance government from August 2002 to May 2004. A three-time lawmaker from Gobindapur (1977, 1995 and 2000), he had resigned from the regional party on April 30, 2008, expressing displeasure at the manner in which it was functioning under Naveen’s leadership.

He unsuccessfully contested from Bhubaneswar central assembly constituency in 2009 as a candidate of Samruddha Odisha. He left the party after a brief stint and then went into political hibernation.

Though he enjoys a good rapport with the electorate of the constituency since his elder brother Trilochan Kanungo was chairman of Cuttack Municipality in the nineties, he looks relatively weak against his BJD and BJP opponents.

A total of 11 candidates, Pramod Kumar Mallick of Bahujan Samaj Party and Biswajit Goswami of Kalinga Sena, are in the fray for Cuttack Lok Sabha seat. Three among them are independents.

With the lotus in full bloom and sound of couch growing louder, the electorate definitely have a tough choice to make.