Ex-Bureaucrats’ Battle For Bhubaneswar: Arup Patnaik Vs Aparajita Sarangi On Cards

Bhubaneswar: The axe is likely to fall on Prasanna Patasani, five-time BJD MP from Bhubaneswar, as the party scouts for new faces to tide over anti-incumbency.

The party named nine Lok Sabha candidates on Monday, and barring Kalikesh Singh Deo, all eight incumbent MPs were replaced.

Speculation is rife that former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik, who joined the party in April 2018, will be fielded from Bhubaneswar and his candidature will be announced soon.

Patnaik currently holds the post of executive chairman of the State Youth Welfare Board.

His name has been proposed to ward off the BJP challenge as the saffron party has long been pitching for bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi, a recent entrant to the BJP, from the seat.

A 1994-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer, Sarangi took the political plunge in November last year after opting for voluntary retirement with an eye on the ensuing elections.

The Congress is likely to back CPM candidate Janardhan Pati for the Bhubaneswar seat.

Veteran CPM leader Shivaji Patnaik had held the seat from 1989 to 1996 and the party claims it enjoys a good support base here.