Bolstered by an aura of invincibility with successive electoral victories since 2000, five-time Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is still widely regarded as the most charismatic leader in Odisha, is in no mood to take chances as the poll fever is steadily ‘infecting’ coastal State.
Yesterday’s announcement of Patnaik to fight from Kantabanji Assembly seat in western Odisha district of Bolangir as well as from his traditional Hinjili seat in Ganjam district has sent the message wide and clear that the regional party will leave no stone unturned to upset the BJP’s vote base in western Odisha.
Evidently, the CM’s electoral game plan is to enhance the prospects of BJD candidates in the western parts of the state where the saffron party has considerable strength as far as organizational network and vote base is concerned. BJD apart the Indian National Congress too has its pockets of influence in terms of votes and grass root network.
Patnaik’s strategic move is a repeat of his 2019 effort when he chose to fight from a seat (Bijepur) in the western district of Bargarh. He won with a margin of over 57,000 votes but gave up the seat to retain Hinjili.
The 2019 twin polls results had thrown up mixed results for BJD. Interestingly, the BJD won all the five assembly seats in Bargarh district in 2019, but it lost the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat to the BJP.
This time, the BJD chief has decided to contest from Kantabanji seat in Bolangir, another western Odisha district where the BJP and Congress are as strong as the BJD.
Congress veteran Santosh Singh Saluja is the sitting MLA of Kantabanji while Sangeeta Singh Deo of the BJP is the Bolangir MP. Of the five assembly seats in the district, two were bagged by the Congress and one by the BJP in 2019. Apparently, Patnaik has shouldered the responsibility for improving the prospects of the party in western Odisha as he eyes a record sixth successive term as CM.
It is pertinent to note that the organisation secretary of the BJD, Pranab Prakash Das who belongs to Jajpur district in coastal Odisha has shifted to Sambalpur in western Odisha to lock horns with Union Minister and BJP candidate Dharmendra Pradhan for the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat.