Bijepur/Bhubaneswar: The Congress party has started preparing for the Bijepur by-poll well ahead of time. The party has targeted to field a strong candidate for this Assembly constituency and formed a committee for the purpose.
It is known, many senior leaders of Congress had united under the aegis of PCC president Niranjan Patnaik at the party’s state office Wednesday and discussed the Bijepur by-poll.
After the discussion, a 9-member committee was formed which will work on selection of the party’s candidate for Bijepur Assembly constituency. However, the leader of legislature party Narasingha Mishra was bestowed chairmanship of the committee.
The process of selection of the party’s candidate will be completed by the 31st of August, party sources said. Although, the date for Bijepur by-poll has not been declared yet, such advanced strategy of the party has sparked debate amongst political observers.
Worthy to note here that BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had won from both Hinjili and Bijepur Assembly constituencies. After he resigned from Bijepur Assembly constituency seat on 2nd June, by-poll will be conducted.
According to reliable sources, there is a very high possibility of by-poll being conducted for Bijepur Assembly constituency by the end of October this year.
On the other hand, Congress has shown poor performance in almost all the elections held recently. As a result, the party has come down to third position in the state politics and lost the status of opposition party in Odisha Legislative Assembly.
Giving his views, Congress leader Pradipta Kumar Nayak said, “We had got 55,000 votes in 2019 general elections, fighting against the Chief Minister. Certainly, we will do well in the by-polls”.
PNN
