The prestigious Puri parliamentary constituency, going to polls on 25 May, is all set for a fascinating and fierce poll battle principally between the candidates of the BJD and the BJP, whose stature has gone beyond Odisha.

The constituency, comprising seven assembly segments spread across three districts – Puri, Khordha, and Nayagarh – is home to 12th century Lord Jagannath temple, a revered shrine for Hindus, and is also perceived to be the socio-cultural and spiritual capital of Odisha. And for apparent reason, the candidates of the two parties in the fray from the key constituency are campaigning with Lord Jagannath on their lips.

The BJP and its candidate Sambit Patra have recently hit the headlines for the wrong reason following Patra’s controversial remark that Lord Jagannath is a “devotee of Modi”. However, quickly realising the repercussions of his folly at an election time, Patra apologised for his remark, saying it was a ‘slip of the tongue’. He even offered to atone for the sacrilege by going through a penance in the name of Lord Jagannath.

Almost all the political heavyweights, who arrive in Odisha to bolster the electoral prospects of their respective parties, make it a point to visit the holy shrine to seek the blessings of Lord Jagannath. The holy shrine is widely regarded as the fulcrum of faith for Hindus and a revered pilgrimage destination for millions of followers of the Jagannath cult across the globe.

Both the BJP and the BJP have fielded high-profile candidates who have long been in the spotlight even outside Odisha.

Former Mumbai Police commissioner Arup Patnaik, who earned a reputation as a tough IPS officer in containing organised crime during his stint at the Country’s financial capital, has been fielded by the BJD. On the other hand, the BJP has nominated Sambit Patra, the national spokesperson of the saffron party, who defends the party in TV debates and talk shows with his oratory skills.

The main fight will be between Patnaik and Patra with Congress relegated to the background owing to a multiplicity of factors. The grand old party has fielded Jay Narayan Patnaik at the last minute after Sucharita Mohanty, the party’s candidate, refused to contest citing lack of funding from the party with days left for the filling of the nomination papers.

Hence, the direct contest between the BJD and the BJP is being widely watched by people with enthusiasm. The BJP, which has never won the Lok Sabha polls from here, has galvanised all its resources to secure a maiden victory from the key constituency of the state, which has been a bastion of the BJD since 1998, said political analysts.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patra was defeated by Pinaki Misra of the BJD with a narrow margin of 11,714.

This time, the regional party replaced Misra with Patnaik, who lost to BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi from the Bhubaneswar seat in 2019. The party is hopeful of maintaining its winning streak from the Puri given the fact that the BJD Government in the state successfully executed the Rs 800-crore Shree Mandir Parikrama Prakalpa (SMPP) project around the 12th Jagannath temple and transformed the constituency into a developed pilgrimage destination. The robust organisational network and expertise of the cadre to mobilise voters at the grassroots level might go to its advantage.

Patra, who has extensively covered the length and breadth of the constituency, banks on PM Modi’s charisma to tide over the poll battle successfully. He is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s massive roadshow on 20 May, which, he is confident, will go a long way in ensuring his victory.

With its trusted vote bank steadily declining over the years, Congress is fighting a tough battle in Puri given the fact that the party is left with shoestring fiscal resources which are no match to its cash-rich rivals launched a campaign blitzkrieg. In 2019, Congress’s Satya Prakash Nayak lost his security deposit after polling a meager 44,734 votes (4% of the total votes). The grand old party does not seem to have done any groundwork to recover from the electoral damage of the 2019 LS polls.

With the Patra-Patnaik bipolar contest writ large on the walls, it remains to be seen whether the BJP will manage to derail BJD’s electoral juggernaut in the Puri seat.