Odisha Elections 2024: Can Bijay Patnaik Unseat 2-Time MLA K Narayan Rao In Paralakhemundi?

Bhubaneswar: With three prominent contenders in poll fray, Paralakhemundi Assembly constituency in Gajapati district is all set to witness a power-packed battle in the upcoming elections in Odisha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated its sitting MLA Koduru Narayana Rao from the seat under Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, while ruling BJD has opted for young turk Rupesh Panigrahy and the Congress has fielded former chief secretary Bijay Pattnaik.

K Narayan Rao, who has been active in Gajapati politics for a long time, is a known face among the voters. He had first won the seat in 2009 elections on BJD ticket but lost to K Surya Rao of Congress by a margin of 1,419 votes in 2014 elections.

In 2019 polls, the BJD replaced Rao with Kalyani Gajapati of the royal family hoping to exploit the voters’ sentiments. But the move misfired and Rao came out victorious after switching over to the saffron party.

Interestingly, Kalyani came third when the results were declared with Independent candidate Tirupati Panigrahy, a businessman, grabbing the second position. Rao polled 52,415 votes, followed by Panigrahy with 37,080 and Kalyani 26,645 votes. Congress nominee K Surya Rao was pushed to the fourth place with 24,040 votes.

This time, the BJD has again changed its candidate and opted for Tirupati Panigrahy’s son Rupesh Panigrahy to infuse young blood into Gajapati politics, while also eyeing to capture the former’s vote share in the constituency.

On the other hand, Congress hopes to make use of the vast experience and administrative skill of the retired bureaucrat Bijay Pattnaik to wrest back Paralakhemundi which was its fort not long back.

In such a scenario, Paralakhemundi is poised to see an interesting battle among the three candidates as it goes to polls on May 13.