It is BJD’s responsibility to win back the esteemed Puri Assembly seat

The Biju Janata Dal is keen to win back the famous Puri Assembly segment this year after the Bharatiya Janata Party won it in 2019. It is using every effort to silence critics and get as much support as possible in order to reclaim the seat.

2019 saw a tight defeat for BJP candidate Jayant Sarangi by BJD heavyweight and former minister Maheswar Mohanty. But after Mohanty’s death, the BJD put his son Sunil Mohanty up for the position this year. The BJD nominated Maheswar Mohanty’s principal opponent, Subhasis Khuntia, to the Rajya Sabha in order to secure Mohanty junior’s win and quell opposition, while Dibakar Patra was appointed as the district party president.

Despite this, the governing party promoted Daita servitor Ramakrishna Dasmahapatra on Monday by designating him as one of the state general secretaries and designating Arun Kumar Mishra and Pritam Jagdeb as the BJD state youth wing’s vice presidents. In addition, two former chairpersons of municipal bodies and nine other senior figures have been assembled to oversee electioneering.

There are fourteen contenders running in this election. After the cancellation of his Congress ticket, Sujit Mahapatra is now contesting as an independent. With the arrival of Umaballav Rath of the Congress, the battle between the BJD and BJP has, however, finally gone triangular.

Prior to going to the Janata Dal, the BJD, and finally the BJP’s Sarangi, Puri was traditionally the stronghold of the Janata Party. In the last election, Sarangi earned 76,747 votes, while Mohanty received 72,739 votes.

Sarangi, whose primary supporters are Srimandir servants, finds itself in a difficult situation when prominent servant Harekrushna Simhari enters the race as an independent. Prior to his election-time membership of the BJP in 2019, Sarangi was the chairman of the Puri municipal body and a member of the BJD. During his five years as an MLA, Sarangi—a protégé of Maheswar Mohanty—claims to have had a hand in almost all of Puri’s development projects.

Rath, the candidate for the Congress, is well-known for his ability to organize and behave with grace. He is anticipated to get support from the BJD and BJP. In his battle against the Vedanta University initiative, he achieved a noteworthy triumph. He is mostly supported in the region where the university project was being planned, but he may not get much support in other areas of the Puri Sadar constituency. His late nomination could provide another issue.

All parties concerned must win the next elections. While the BJP wants to solidify its position, the BJD is working to reclaim the seat from them. With their new nominee, the Congress intends to change the electoral environment.

To add another facet to the election debate, the BJD would want to concentrate on the Shree Jagannath Parikrama project and other infrastructural efforts. Political observers who are keeping a close eye on the matter believe that the governing party has to be on guard against internal sabotage, which happened during the 2019 elections.