BJP poster boy, Cong’s ex-TV star and three-time BJD MP to contest Puri polls

By-Bibhuti Mohapatra

Bhubaneswar: Puri's electorate is gearing up to witness a high intensity battle of the spokespersons of three major political parties in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While the region has remained a BJD bastion for the last few decades, this time round, BJP and Congress are pulling out all the stops by entering their debate-friendly candidates in the polls.

BJP has fielded its poster boy and party national spokesperson Sambit Patra for the LS seat. Not to be outdone, Congress has picked the former news TV star and current state spokesperson, Satya Prakash Nayak. While the Biju Janata Dal party has nominated three-time MP, and eminent lawyer, Pinaki Misra to give both political parties competition.

Nayak joined the Congress a year ago after quitting journalism citing frequent political interference and pressure due to his anti-establishment stand. “I always focused on news reports that exposed the double-speak of the ruling government. Due to my regular attacks on crucial policies of the government, I made many enemies in politics. Many of them used their clout to get me fired from different media houses. I joined politics to answer them from their terrain,” says Nayak. He further alleged that he had been targeted with false cases like defamation and rioting, and his school-teacher wife was also frequently transferred to trouble his family. 

BJP's Patra has been campaigning using the Hindutva platform, stirring controversy in the constituency. During a campaign rally, he was seen carrying an idol of Lord Jagannath, which drew the ire of locals and his political opponents. Irked by the use of religion, the BJD registered a complaint with the Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) citing Patra's use of religion to influence voters.

Meanwhile, official of the flying squad has registered an FIR against Patra for allegedly using Lord Jagannath’s name on his vehicle being used for election campaigning. The plaint was filed at Sea Beach police station of Puri town.

Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik-led BJD re-nominated Misra, an eminent lawyer at National Green Tribunal (NGT). Sitting MP, Misra was first elected on a Congress ticket in 1996. Later, he joined the BJD and won the seat in 2009 and 2014.

According to a regional political analyst, though the Lok Sabha seat was with BJD during the past two decades, the BJP has emerged as a strong opponent with Congress being left behind. The Congress is gradually losing ground as many of its leaders have left for other parties. With lesser grass-root workers, Congress is not able to give a tough fight to the BJP, which has taken in many senior BJD leaders.

In addition, the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP party chief, Amit Shah have been touring Odisha regularly for the last three years to strengthen the party base in the state. There is a support base for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and BJP in the region because of a large population of Hindus in the region. In addition, ahead of the polls, many strong BJD and Congress leaders have joined the BJP. Former BJD leader and Puri Municipality Chairman, Jayanta Kumar Sarangi recently joined BJP and is contesting from Puri. Sitting Kandhamal MP and royal scion, Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh, who was elected on a BJD ticket also joined the BJP. Singh’s presence will help the BJP in Nayagarh.

After the death of Congress’ veteran leader, Late Laltendu Bidydhar (Lulu) Mohapatra, his daughter Upasana and brother Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mahapatra have left Congress and joined BJP. Moreover, a sizable section of Congress workers from the constituency have also shifted their allegiance to BJP. Lalitendu is the BJP nominee for the seat now.

The ruling party in Odisha, BJD, has re-nominated its current and former ministers, Maheswar Mohanty (Puri), Pradeep Maharathy (Pipili), Sanjay Kumar Das Burma (Bramhagiri), Arun Sahoo (Nayagarh), and other senior leaders for four additional seats. Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik is campaigning in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency today (Friday).

As the polls near, all contesting party spokespersons communication skills are being put to test. “No development took place in the state because of the inefficiency of the BJD government. People have love and affection towards Modi and we are trying to convert this into votes,” says Patra.

Meanwhile Misra ruled out any threat from Patra and Nayak. “The track record of Patra is that he has so far debated only in 'godi channels' (those favouring the government) where anchors don’t pose any serious questions. Let him debate with me, I will show him his place and tell him about my performance in Parliament,” he said. 

About Puri Lok Sabha seat

Puri has seven assembly constituencies spread across Puri, Khurda and Nayagarh districts. These include Puri, Brahmagiri, Satyabadi, Pipili, Chilika, Ranpur and Nayagarh. Chilika and Ranpur are parts of Khurda district and this is the only constituency in Odisha, where all assembly seats are general category, which means anyone can contest polls.

Prior to the delimitation of parliamentary and the legislative assembly constituencies in 2008, Nayagarh did not have an assembly seat. Instead, Balipatana came under the MP seat. Polls for this Lok Sabha seat has been held 16 times since 1952, of which Congress won the seat six times, while the Janata Dal won it thrice. The Communist Party of India and George Fernandes’ Samyukta Socialist Party won the seat in 1967 and 1957 elections, respectively. The BJD has continuously won the Puri seat since its inception in 1998. The regional party won elections in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. The former Union Minister, Braja Kishore Tripathy was elected from the seat four times in 1991 (Janata Dal), 1998 (BJD), 1999 (BJD) and 2004 (BJD).

In 2014, BJD's Mishra got 5,23,161 (50.33 per cent) votes, Congress’ Sucharita Mohanty got 2,59,800 (25 per cent) votes and BJP's Ashok Sahu got 2,15,763 (20.76 per cent) votes.

In 2014, of seven MLA seats, BJD won five, while BJP and an independent candidate, Umakanta Samantray won Chilika and Satyabadi seats. However, Samantray later joined the BJD. The Puri seat is significant because Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik picked four MLAs from the constituency to be a part of his cabinet. Two of them were removed from the cabinet during the reshuffle in 2018, after winning Bijepur by-polls.