Puri: Nominees from three major political parties and Independents have intensified their campaign in Puri Assembly constituency which is going to polls April 23.
While some candidates are organising public rallies to woo voters, others are undertaking door-to-door campaigns.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has fielded five-time MLA Maheswar Mohanty from the seat while the BJP has nominated former Puri Municipality Chairperson Jayanta Kumar Sarangi.
The Congress has picked its youth leader Auroprasad Mishra, an engineer, to contest from the constituency.
Maheswar Mohanty had won the seat five times continuously from 1995. He was also a minister. This time the BJD leadership renominated Maheswar to fight the polls despite stiff resistance from local leaders.
Maheswar had managed to secure 76,760 votes in 2014 Assembly elections while his nearest rival Umaballav Rath of the Congress polled 42,039 votes.
Maheswar had secured 61,328 votes in the 2009 Assembly polls on a BJD ticket. Rath who had contested as a BJP candidate came second with 47,934 votes.
Sarangi was in the BJD for many years and was elected the Chairman of Puri Municipality. Sarangi left BJD and joined BJP a few days ago.
“Maheswar was elected from the seat five times. But both Sarangi and Mishra is contesting Assembly elections for the first time. This is an electoral battle between an old timer and two greenhorns,” said a political observer.
Sarangi claimed that Puri voters would vote for the BJP this time. “People have seen BJD rule in the state for 19 years. Now they have decided to vote for the BJP, a national party. The BJP would retain power at the Centre and would form the government in Odisha too,” Sarangi said.
Congress nominee Mishra said that both the BJD and the BJP have done nothing for Puri.
“Mohanty has been representing Puri since years. Sarangi was the chairperson of the city’s municipality for five years. But they failed miserably in implementing development projects. The people have lost all hopes in the BJD and BJP. They would vote for Congress this time,” Mishra said.
Political observers said the dissident factor may cause problems for the nominees of all the three major parties in Puri.
BJP leader Krushnachandra Panda resigned expressing displeasure over Sarangi’s nomination. A few BJD leaders had tried their best to get their party’s ticket from Puri, but failed.
Similarly, some Congress leaders had opposed Mishra’s candidature and had held a demonstration against the Congress state leadership on the issue.
“The nominees of all the three major political parties are facing dissent. The dissident factor may harm their prospects,” added the political observer.