Berhampur: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has started preparing in advance to wrest all the seven Assembly seats under the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment in the 2024 elections, a report said Thursday. The move has been necessitated after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to get over 3 lakh votes from the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment despite the BJD candidate winning the seat in the 2019 general elections. BJD’s Lok Sabha candidate Chandra Sekhar Sahu won from the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment by winning 4,43,843 votes. BJP candidate Bhrugu Buxipatra came second by winning 3,48,999 votes.
Congress candidate V Chandrasekhar Naidu came third by winning only 1,42,832 votes. The results surprised local intelligentsia, political pundits, party observers, and political analysts as the BJP which had no base in this Lok Sabha segment in earlier elections could manage to get over 3 lakh votes in the 2019 elections.
Observers believed that this might have become possible with all the pocket votes of the grand old party Congress going to the saffron party. This Lok Sabha segment comprises Chhatrapur, Berhampur, Gopalpur, Digapahandi, and Chikiti Assembly seats from Ganjam district as well as Mohana and Paralakhemundi Assembly segments in neighbouring Gajapati district. The ruling BJD won from all five Assembly segments in the Ganjam district while BJP won from Paralakhemundi and Congress from Mohana Assembly segments in the Gajapati district.
Now, BJD has set its eyes on Paralakehmundi and Mohana Assembly segments in the Gajapati district. BJD’s Berhampur Lok Sabha MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu is spending the majority of his time in a month in the Gajapati district. BJD’s Gajapati district observer and state minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak visited Paralakhemundi during the first week of this month and supervised the organisational network and strength in the district. A day later, BJD’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das alias Bobby and minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak suddenly toured Paralakhemundi and held hectic discussions with party leaders and workers in the presence of party MP Sahu. Therefore, it is anticipated that BJD is preparing an advanced strategy to win from Paralakhemundi and Mohana Assembly segments where it had lost in the 2019 elections.
Observers speculated that laying stress on the Gajapati district might be part of a greater strategy by the ruling party. In another case, BJD MLA Pradip Panigrahi, who had won from the Gopalpur Assembly segment under the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment in the 2019 polls, was sacked from the party two years back. BJD’s party organisation is now being looked after by the Chief Minister’s political secretary Gopabandhu Das in this Assembly segment. It is still uncertain who will be fielded by the party from this Assembly segment in the 2024 elections.
On the other hand, intense infighting has gripped the ruling party in Chhatrapur. A new faction is opposing the party MLA Subhash Chandra Behera in this Assembly segment for which several new faces have started lobbying hard to get the party ticket from the Chhatrapur Assembly segment in the next elections. Digapahandi MLA Surya Narayan Patra has withdrawn from active politics due to his illness putting the party’s position in Digapahandi in uncertainty.
Similarly, Chikiti MLA Usha Devi is now a Cabinet minister in the state but party workers are unsure whether she will contest this seat in the next election or allow his son to contest from this Assembly segment. Some frontline leaders of the party are also lobbying hard for the party ticket from this Assembly segment. BJD’s Berhampur MLA Bikram Panda, who lost this seat four times from 2000 to 2014 as a Congress candidate, became an MLA only after he joined BJD before the 2019 elections.
A section of party workers is also opposing Panda in this seat. However, he has managed to keep himself as well as the party safe in this seat due to his continuous and sustained efforts. As a result, the ruling party is in a better and safe position in the Berhampur Assembly segment than the rest four Assembly segments in the Ganjam district under the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment.