Khaira: Hectic political lobbying has been going on in Simulia assembly segment in Balasore parliamentary constituency for the last few months. The three major political parties — BJD, BJP and Congress — face the problem of multiple ticket aspirants.
The assembly segment (No 42) consists of Khaira and Simulia blocks with 59 panchayats. As per the voters’ list published January 1, 2019, the assembly seat has 2, 30, 886 voters of whom 1,18, 067 are women.
Interestingly, since the 1951 elections till 1980, no candidate has been able to win polls more than once from this seat. However, the winning trend began to change since 1980. Late Parsuram Panigrahi was elected in 1980 and Padmalochan Panda in 1985.
In 2009, Parsuram was again elected by trouncing Congress leader Padmalochan by a margin of 10,927 votes. As Parsuram fell ill, his son Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi got ticket from BJD in 2014 and defeated Padmalochan by a margin of 7,937 votes.
For the first time in 2014, the BJP had made its foray here by putting up Sasi Kumar Sahu who got 28,011 votes. Since then, both Jyoti Prakash and Sasi Kumar have started their own organisational activities to broaden their bases.
Now, Jyoti Prakash is hopeful of BJD party ticket again, but growing dissidence has been his headache, it is said.
After Congress debacle in consecutive terms, Padmalochan distanced himself from the party and finally joined BJP October 21, 2018.
However, Sasi Kumar had strongly opposed the admission of Padmalochan by the saffron party. Sasi Kumar had planned to join BJD, but cancelled his plan later. It is said that he may mull joining BJD soon.
BJD observer Upendra Padhi and another leader Nikunja Kishore Das are also BJD ticket hopefuls from the seat. Local BJD leader and vice chairperson of the block, Jayant Kumar Rout, is also an aspirant for this seat.
On the other hand, the saffron party’s new found leader Padmalochan is said to get BJP ticket. He has been trying to win back BJP workers in the two blocks.
A section of BJP has been lobbying with the state BJP leadership to field former Nilagiri MLA Pratap Sarangi from this seat so as to ensure saffron victory.
After crossover of Padmalochan from Congress, Rabi Satpathy is said to be a ticket aspirant from the grand old party from the seat. It is said that Satpathy who has been working as cost accountant in New Delhi has good links with Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of ex-AICC president Sonia Gandhi. Satpathy is a strong claimant for the Congress ticket here.
However, OPCC vice president Ananta Sethi, a native of Khaira, is said to be in a pout of annoyance over possible candidature of Satpathy. Another young Congress leader Parikshit Mohapatra is hopeful of party ticket.
Meanwhile, the Congress screening committee has recommended the names of Rabi Satpathy and another leader Bishnu Ghadei for the tickets.
PNN
