Jajpur: The campaign scene in Jajpur and Kendrapara districts has warmed up after the visits of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The public address of Singh in Jajpur district has encouraged BJP activists.
The impact of Modi’s campaign Tuesday in neighbouring Kendrapara district is being felt in Jajpur district too.
This has increased the concern of Sarmistha Sethi, the BJD candidate in Jajpur Parliamentary constituency. However, she is trying hard to manage the situation by banking on the BJD’s welfare programmes and the clean image of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The fight in Jajpur between the politically experienced candidate of BJP, Amiya Mallik, and the highly educated candidate of BJD, Sarmistha Sethi, a newcomer to politics, is expected to be tough.
Local voters in Jajpur and Kendrapara districts are quite interested in politics. The political heat can be seen everywhere in the two districts.
Interestingly, the strong stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi against BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik seems to have created an impact on local voters.
In other states, voters judge the ability of LS candidates independently. But in Odisha the fate of LS candidates depend on the support they get from Assembly contestants.
For example, in Jajpur LS constituency, the roadshows of Assembly candidates have helped Parliamentary candidates very much.
The results of past elections show that the victory of a Parliamentary candidate by and large depends on the rate of votes cast by local voters in favour of the party’s Assembly candidates.
In 2014, when all the seven Assembly candidates of the BJD won in Jajpur district, Reeta Tarai was elected as MP with a record number of votes. However, the situation seems to have changed this time.
There will be a tough fight between the BJD and the BJP in all the constituencies of the district except Dharmasala.
The fight between BJD’s LS candidate Sarmistha and BJP candidate Amiya is intensifying by the day. Sarmistha is a highly educated and retired government official.
Many specialties have been noticed in her campaign style. Unlike other candidates she does not utter a single ungentlemanly word against adversaries. She is focusing on development issues in the district.
Sarmistha’s focus is on issues like railways, national highways, Awas Yojana, drinking water and employment. Her M.Phil degree in Political Science seems to be helping her and she is being accepted by voters.
However, the intense campaign of the BJP might prove all speculations wrong. The conscious, silent voters seem to be supporting the leadership of Naveen Patnaik, but they are also thinking about backing Modi when it comes to the country as a whole.
While BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik is the only heavyweight in the election campaigns of his party candidates, the BJP is deploying its veteran national leaders, apart from its star campaigner Narendra Modi.
Electioneering will end at 5 pm Saturday. Many heavyweights are expected to come to the district for campaigning before that.
Congress candidate Manas Jena appears to be dormant and he is depending on the traditional vote bank of his party.
PNN