Senior leaders of the ruling party are now camping in the constituency
BHUBANESWAR: As campaign for Dhamnagar bypoll has intensified, difficulties seem to be mounting for the ruling BJD even though more than two dozen ministers, MLAs and senior leaders are camping in the constituency to steer the party candidate to victory.
The BJD has taken a public stand that its candidate will win by an overwhelming margin of over 30,000 votes based on calculations from panchayat and urban local body elections held earlier this year. However, confidence is lacking among the leaders and workers who are camping in the constituency.
There are several reasons for which the result may not be similar to other bypolls in which the BJD candidates always prevailed. Rebel candidate Rajendra Kishore Das who is contesting as an independent has a presence in all the three panchayats of the constituency as he had won from the seat in the 2009 Assembly election, and was a strong contender for the party ticket in the 2014 poll and had lost to BJP in the 2019 election.
A majority of the workers of the ruling party were his followers. Though he was denied a ticket by the party for the bypoll at the last minute, sources in the party said that all the local leaders and workers have not switched their loyalty. BJD candidate Abanti Das was confined to Tihidi panchayat and naturally did not have following in other parts of the constituency. This has created a difficult situation for the ruling party.
The BJD tried to play the women card by fielding Abanti and take advantage of the fact that she was also member of the Mission Shakti self help group (SHG). However, this seemed to have not worked as per BJD’s calculations.
Besides, interference in the poll management starting from candidate selection by leaders from other Assembly constituencies and neighbouring district Jajpur have also given rise to strong resentment among the local leaders and workers. Sources said the ruling party’s last trump card is Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who is likely to campaign virtually on October 30.
Sources said the party will take stock of the prevailing situation after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s two-day padayatra in the constituency from January 28. A senior leader of the ruling BJD said that the party may change its game plan then according to the situation.
