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Balangir: Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday filed nomination for Kantabanji, the second seat apart from his usual Hinjli from where he will be contesting the upcoming elections in Odisha.
The BJD supremo landed at a temporary helipad at City High School ground in a special chopper and then proceeded to office of Titlagarh sub-collector, who is the returning officer of Kantabanji, in a cavalcade to file his papers. He was accompanied by 5T chairman V K Pandian, senior BJD leader A U Singhdeo and sitting Titlagarh MLA Tukuni Sahu.
This came two days after Naveen filed his nomination papers for Hinjili Assembly constituency, from where he will be seeking re-election for the sixth consecutive term.
Kantabanji is the weakest seat in western Odisha for the BJD, where the party finished 3rd in 2019 Assembly polls. Congress’ Santosh Singh Saluja won the seat and Laxman Bag of BJP finished second in Kanjabannji, which falls under Balangir Lok Sabha seat. Sangeeta Singh Deo of BJP is the sitting Balangir MP.
In 2019, Sangeeta had got the highest lead of 33,765 votes from Kantabanji followed by Patnagarh (7983 votes), Loisingha (12,618 votes) and Titlagarh (1948 votes). BJD’s Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo got nearly 20,000 votes more than her from Balangir Assembly seat, 11849 in Sonepur and 6644 in Birmaharajpur. The victory margin was around 20,000 votes.
By fielding Naveen from Kanjabanji, the BJD not only hopes to wrest the seat, which it had won only once in 2014, but also make a dent in BJP vote share. It is also likely to have a wider political impact in western Odisha, where the BJP had won all five Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Also Read: Encore Of 2019 Western Odisha Experiment: Why Naveen Patnaik Chose Kantabanji?
His entry, like it did in 2019, when he successfully fought from Bijepur in Bargarh district and ensured the BJD got 22 MLAs from the belt, could force the rival parties to battle for every inch of the western poll pie. Though the BJP won the Bargarh parliamentary seat, the BJD grabbed all seven assembly segments there.
With BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das battling for Sambalpur LS, the Conch outfit also wants to make every vote in the western region count, thereby making it difficult for the BJP and the Congress to make deep electoral inroads.
