Bhubaneswar: It has been a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) stronghold for at least over two decades with the party winning the seat consequtively for five times. However, the sailing may not be smooth this time for BJD candidate and three-time MP from Puri Lok Sabha constituency Pinaki Mishra with BJP’s Sambit Patra riding high on Narendra Modi’s popularity wave.
Journalist-turned-politician Satya Prakash Nayak is the Congress nominee for the seat.
In the 2014 general elections, Mishra polled more than 5 lakh votes and defeated his nearest Congress rival Sucharita Mohanty by over 2.5 lakh votes. BJP’s Ashok Sahu came third with 2.15 lakh votes.
For five consecutive elections since 1998, the BJD maintained a healthy 17 per cent average winning margin over its nearest rivals. While Mishra is the incumbent MP since 2009, BJD’s Braja Kishore Tripathy won three consecutive elections before him.
Mishra had also won this seat on a Congress ticket in 1996.
The BJP has already made Puri a poll plank with the party manifesto proposing to make it the ‘Spiritual Capital’ of India. There were also talks of PM Modi contesting from the seat. The saffron party, however, fielded its national spokesperson Patra against the suave and articulate senior lawyer Mishra.
Patra, who has done well to silence rivals on television debate shows, has made a few goof-ups since filing his nominations and also been accused of poll code violations. He is also considered an outsider in Puri. A native of Jajpur, he did his MBBS from the SCB Medical College in Cuttack and PG from the Medical College in Burla. He has no activity to reckon with in Puri.
He can be now seen wooing the electorate with his vocals.
As for his electoral record, he had earlier unsuccessfully contested as a BJP ward candidate in the Delhi municipal area.
BJP national president Amit Shah also held a roadshow in Puri to bolster the prospects of his party candidates on April 9. A few days later on April 20, BJD president Naveen Patnaik toured the Pilgrim Town in his high-tech bus, canvassing for votes, and addressed public meeting for third-phase polls. He also offered prayers at the Jagannath temple.
The Congress won the Puri lok Sabha seat six times, but now its ground presence has weakened in all the seven assembly segments- Puri, Brahmagiri, Satyabadi, Pipili, Chilika, Ranpur and Nayagarh.
Sitting MLAs Pradeep Maharathy and Maheswar Mohanty have been holding the Pipili and Puri forts, respectively, for four consecutive elections since 2000. Sanjay Das Burma has been winning from Brahmagiri for the last two elections. Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra had last won this seat for Congress in 2004. In Satyabadi, Umakanta Samantray contested 2014 elections as an Independent, after being ousted from BJD, and wrested the seat earlier held by Congress’ Prasad Kumar Harichandan; he has subsequently rejoined BJD.
BJD’s Arun Kumar Sahu has won from Nayagarh, which was added to the Puri KS constituency after delimitation in 2008, thrice in a row.
The BJD has repeated all the five sitting MLAs in 2019 elections.
Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan has the lone warrior of BJP from this parliamentary constituency. He was elected from Chilika thrice (2000, 2004, 2014), but the party has replaced him with Prithiviraj Harichandan this time. BJD’s Prasanta Kumar Jagadev and Congress’ Pradip Kumar Swain are in the fray from this seat. Joining of Congress’ Chilika leader Manas Mangaraj has further strengthened BJD in this segment, which the regional party had won in 2009 elections.
The BJD has been winning the Ranpur seat for past two elections. While Satyanarayan Pradhan wrested the seat from BJP in 2009, Rabinarayan Mohapatra retained it in 2014. The party, however, decided to bring back Satyanarayan this time to contest the polls. He is crossing swords with former minister and senior BJP leader Surama Padhy.
