Parties Gear Up For Bypolls In Odisha’s Balasore Sadar & Tirtol Constituencies

Bhubaneswar: With the Election Commission of India announcing bypolls for 65 Assembly constituencies in various states, political parties in Odisha have revved up the process for selection of candidates for Balasore Sadar and Tirtol seats.

While the Congress has shortlisted six candidates for Tirtol, the party has picked Nabajyoti Patnaik, son of PCC president Niranjan Patnaik, as first choice for Balasore Sadar.

Talking to mediapersons on Sunday, Congress leader Suresh Routray said that his party has started campaign in these two constituencies. “We will positively win in these two constituencies and raise the number in the Assembly from 9 to 11,” he maintained.

The Congress on Monday formed a committee to oversee the by-elections in Tirtol and Balasore Sadar constituencies. State Congress working president Chiranjib Biswal had formed a committee on July 13 and entrusted Jatani MLA Suresh Routray for monitoring the bypoll in Tirtol and Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati for Balasore Sadar.

As for BJP, the party’s state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said that selection of candidates is in the final stage and their names will be sent to the central parliamentary board.

On the other hand, the BJD supremo has entrusted Debasis Samantray, Raghunandan Das, Sanjay Das Burma, Pratap Jena and Prasant Muduli to oversee the Tirtol bypoll, while Pratap Jena has been appointed as the observer of Balasore district.

On the selection of candidates for these two constituencies, Samantray said that the party supremo till take a call.