Balasore: Even as the polling date for Balasore Sadar Assembly constituency seat which is scheduled for November 3 gets nearer, the three major political parties – BJD, BJP and Congress have been changing their respective electioneering strategies.
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In such a situation, the ruling party has largely eyed on splitting ‘sympathy vote’ of the saffron camp. Possibly, it is going to be a bipolar contest here, sources from ground zero said.
Congress party has fielded Mamata Kundu as its candidate from the Balasore Sadar Assembly constituency segment.
In the meanwhile, the party’s erstwhile candidate for Balasore Sadar Assembly constituency seat in 2014 and 2019 general elections Manas Ranjan Das Patnaik has joined the BJD along with hundreds of his ardent supporters.
However, Manas had lost the 2019 election with 19,704 votes cast in his favour. A lion’s-share of his votes may go in favour of BJD, political analysts opine.
Coming on to the BJD, the party heavy-weights have camped in the Assembly constituency segment for several weeks. They have been carrying out door-to-door campaigns seeking local mandates in favour of BJD candidate Swarup Kumar Das.
On the other hand, the Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Benudhar Barik is being regarded as a dummy candidate of the BJD, and has reportedly been fielded to divert BJP’s sympathy votes.
Banking on the sympathy votes, BJP has fielded Manas Kumar Dutta from this Assembly constituency segment, who happens to be the son of deceased BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta.
Notably, Madan Mohan Dutta had defeated BJD candidate Jiban Pradip Dash with a margin of 13,406 votes in 2019 general elections. The late leader’s son Manas is said to have good rapport among young voters and the party’s organisation.
PNN
