Hinjilicut: Polling will be held in the Hinjili Assembly segment (No: 132, unreserved) under Aska Lok Sabha constituency April 18. The campaigning came to an end Tuesday.
Hinjili is set for a triangular fight between the BJD, BJP and the Congress. The BJD is eyeing a fifth term for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here. Given the clean image of the Chief Minister, he is likely to win this seat again with a huge margin.
Nine candidates are contesting from this seat. They are Naveen Patnaik of the BJD, Pitambar Acharya, the state vice-president and spokesperson of the BJP, Bhaskar Choudhury of the BSP, Sambhu Panigrahi, the Gajapati district in-charge of the Congress, Tirupati Dora of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Ranjan Kumar Apat of the Ambedkar National Congress and Independents Babula Sahu, C. Laxmi Achari and Sukant Kumar Panda.
BJD’s Hinjili president Bhimasen Dora, the party’s block chairperson N. Raghunath and block president Surendra Pradhan said the CM will win with a huge margin.
BJP candidate Pitambar Acharya said winds of change were blowing in the state and that’s the reason the Chief Minister decided to contest from Bijepur too.
Congress candidate Sambhu Panigrahi said Hinjlii was earlier a Congress fortress, and that people will vote for his party as youths, farmers and labourers were ‘cheated with false promises’ in the last 19 years.
BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik started his political career from the Aska Lok Sabha constituency after the death of his father Biju Patnaik.
Patnaik won the Aska Lok Sabha seat and became a minister in the Vajpayee government as the BJD forged an alliance with the BJP.
After the 1999 Super Cyclone he started concentrating on state politics and has been winning from Hinjili since 2000. He has won all elections with a thumping majority and became the CM four times consecutively.
Hinjili has seen much development during Patnaik’s 19-year stint as Chief Minister. Pucca roads have been built to all villages in the area and safe drinking water is now available to all.
Four bridges across the Rushikulya and Ghodahada rivers have solved transportation problems. The Hinjilicut NAC has been upgraded to a municipality. New canals have been built and old canals renovated.
The Hinjilicut block won the national award twice for successful implementation of MGNREGS. Educational infrastructure has improved with the opening of the Model School, Kendriya Vidyalaya and other schools in the area.
The Hinjilicut hospital has been upgraded to a 80-bed facility and the construction of a new bus terminal and indoor stadium is on. The BJD claims that Hinjili has become a model of development.
But the Congress and the BJP say the area has witnessed large scale distress migration by youths to other states for employment. Many people in this area have been affected by AIDS.
The lack of storage facilities has led to distress sales of paddy here and many farms have been grabbed by property dealers as agriculture has ceased to be attractive.
The most serious allegation of the Opposition is the rampant corruption in the government’s development projects and social welfare schemes.
The BJP has alleged that Patnaik is contesting from Bijepur Assembly seat as he fears defeat here. Whatever might be the truth regarding this, the Opposition is much more active here now than in the past.
The Hinjili Assembly seat was constituted in 2009 and it comprises the Hinjilicut civic body area, Hinjili block and Shergad block. There are 2,20,265 voters here, of which males number 1,16,935 and females 1,03,315. There are 15 other voters.
The constituency has 224 booths. There are 109 booths in Shergad block, 11 booths in Hinjilicut municipality and 104 booths in Hinjilicut block. Booth No: 124 on NAC High School premises in Hinjilicut is a Pink Booth staffed entirely by women.
College student Hrushikesh Rath said he will keep in mind the state and country and vote according to his conscience. Residents of Burupoda and Sikiri said they will vote on the basis of what has been done in their constituency.
Hinjili Bar Association President Rama Chandra Mohapatra said that voters will go by the candidate’s merit and his party this time.
People will vote differently in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and the outcome will surprise all, he added.
PNN
