Puri/ Bhubaneswar: Despite the lack of clarity on the possible alliance between BJD and BJP, speculation is rife over which party would bag the politically-important Puri Lok Sabha seat in case of a electoral tie-up.
Because of the high stakes surrounding Shree Jagannath Temple and the strong organisation of both parties, neither BJD nor BJP is keen to lose this Lok Sabha seat. Currently, BJD’s Pinaki Mishra is Puri MP. In 2019, he defeated BJP’s Sambit Patra, who is a national spokesperson of his party, by a close margin of less than 12,000 votes. While Pinaki was reportedly reluctant to contest this time and has not been very active in the area, Sambit seems keen to enter the electoral fray again and has been touring the constituency regularly. Prior to alliance talks, speculation abounded that former IPS officer and BJD leader Arup Patnaik would contest for Puri Lok Sabha in case Pinaki dropped out.
In such a scenario, both sides do not seem willing to yield to the other’s demand considering the impact it might have their respective party’s support base.
This seat will allow BJP, which has so far been mostly confined to the western belt, make deep inroads into BJD-dominated coastal Odisha. In the seven Assembly constituencies under this Parliamentary seat, the BJD has MLAs in five and BJP in two. And the parties were gearing up for a close contest in all the seven seats in 2024 elections before the alliance talks.
However, BJD saw a controversy last month after a video featuring BJD leader Sanjay Das Burma allegedly claiming to have been chosen to contest from Satyabadi assembly seat went viral, prompting the party to hold a meeting with him and Umakanta Samantray, the current MLA of the constituency.
Two-time MLA Das Burma lost his Bramhagiri seat in 2019 elections to BJP’s Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, who is the brother of Congress strongman and three-time MLA Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, who died in 2016.
The BJD, which had never won in Satyabadi, secured the seat for the first time following Samantray’s victory in 2019 when he joined the party. Samantray had won the seat as an independent in 2014 elections.
While Puri Sadar MLA Jayant Sarangi enjoys a good base in the constituency, BJD was hoping to topple his apple cart by fielding former MLA Maheswar Mohanty’s son Sunil and wrest the seat back from BJP by cashing in on the sympathy wave created by Maheswar’s death.
Though BJD was able to retain the Pipili seat with Rudra Pratap Maharathy winning the 2021 bypoll by a bigger margin than his father, Pradeep Maharathy, had in the 2019 elections, the former could be in for an acid test in 2024 as his rival Ashrit Pattanayak of BJP is breathing down his neck.
The BJP also enjoys an advantage in Chilika Assembly constituency, which is considered a traditional stronghold of the Harichandan family. Prithiviraj Harichandan finished second in 2019 elections to incumbent MLA Prasanta Jagadev, who was expelled from BJD in 2022 and recently joined the saffron party.
BJD sources also mentioned about the tough fight four-time MLA Arun Sahoo may face in Nayagarh Assembly constituency from BJP’s Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh, popularly known as ‘Rani Maa Nayagarh’ on the strength of the organisation built by her late husband and former Kandhamal MP Hemendra Chandra Singh, who left Congress and joined BJD in February 2014.
In Ranpur too, Surama Padhy of BJP seems belligerent to avenge her previous defeats to BJD. In 2019 elections, she improved her vote share by 11% but lost to BJD’s Satyanarayan Pradhan by a slender margin of 4,251.
A BJP-BJD alliance, however, will put a cap to this rivalry in Puri Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and also the regional party’s dominance in the region. Which way the scales will tilt shall decide the fate of quite a few leaders of both parties.
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