Jajpur: With the campaign for the upcoming three-tier rural polls in Jajpur district hitting feverish pitch, voters here have been warned that they must support a particular party or else their ration cards will be withdrawn. This was revealed during a meeting of the public distribution system (PDS) dealers held recently at Kuakhia under Korei block. The dealers said they were instructed by the party leadership to warn local voters accordingly.
Sources said the political equation in Korei block, a bastion of the BJD, is swinging towards another party which has perturbed the ruling party leaders. Apart from using PDS dealers, local leaders and party workers have also been directly threatening the voters, said sources.
Korei block has 28 panchayats, three zilla parishad (ZP) zones and 408 wards. BJD won all three ZP seats in 2017 panchayat elections. However, BJP secured good percentage of votes, showing that they could be a potential threat in the future. This is keeping the BJD on its toes.
In zone-1 of Korei block, BJD got 54 per cent of votes and 45 per cent each in zone- 2 and 3. On the contrary, BJP secured 27 per cent of votes in zone-1, 29 per cent in zone-2 and 33 per cent in zone-3 respectively.
The 2017 panchayat poll results had its reflections on the 2019 general elections. BJD’s MLA candidate Ashok Bal bagged 73,403 votes (49.6 per cent) from the block while BJP’s Biswajit Nayak obtained 42,679 votes (28.4 per cent). Congress was in third position with its candidate Bandita Parida securing 28,487 votes (19.25 per cent).
It is pertinent to mention here that Korei block has 32,946 ration cardholders.
