Saranda: The Attabira Assembly constituency (No: 4), which falls in the Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency comprises 11 wards of Attabira NAC and 24 panchayats of Attabira and Bheden blocks.
The seat was constituted in 1951-52 as a unitary constituency of the Legislative Assembly. Later, it was merged with Sambalpur and Bargarh Assembly constituencies. In 2009, it was again reconstituted with 1,89,144 voters.
As per the 2011 census, the constituency has 1,53,195 people including 35,589 from the SC and 33,022 from the ST categories in Attabira block and 1,22,362 people, including 30,099 from the SC and 16,110 from the ST categories in Bheden block. The total population is 2,75,557.
There are 1,03, 622 female voters and 1,11,855 male voters here.
There will be 252 polling booths, four less than in the last election. Polling will be held here in the second phase, that is April 19. The notification for filing nominations will be issued March 19. The deadline for filing nominations will be March 26, and verification of documents will be done March 27.
Candidatures can be withdrawn on or before March 30. The counting will be held May 23.
Meanwhile, politics is slowly turning hot in this Assembly constituency. Debates are going on in every nook and corner on who has lost popularity, who has gained and who will get party tickets from which political party, and who are the ticket hopefuls.
After restructuring of this Assembly constituency its political scene underwent a sea change, and that was reflected in the election results. This time also a lot of changes can take place. Most parties have started groundwork to strengthen their positions.
Earlier, the BJP had a better grip on 19 panchayats of Attabira block and the position of the BJD was not satisfactory. But in 2009, despite Congress candidate Nihar Ranjan Mahananda winning the seat, BJD leader Snehangini Chhuria could become a member of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) and she brought many development projects to this area through grants-in-aid. This enabled her to win this Assembly seat in 2014.
It is not clear who will get the BJD ticket this time. Snehangini Chhuria, ex-Member of the Zilla Parishad and ex-sarpanch of Chakuli, Manoranjan Kumbhar, Durga Chhuria and social activist Gobinda Nag are in the race for the BJD ticket.
In the BJP, the party’s candidate Milan Seth who lost last time and labour leader Urkulu Tandi are the forerunners. Bipin Bhosagar, ex-sarpanch Puspabati Seth, Kartik Sanyet, Engineer Bharat Behera, Yashobant Ranabida and Yashobant Seth are also in the race for BJP ticket in this constituency.
In the Congress, ex-MLA Nihar Ranjan Mahananda is a major hopeful for the party ticket. Former Attabira NAC chairperson Sunita Bagh has also joined the race.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also going to field a candidate from here in the coming elections.
As farmers’ organisations are very active in Attabira region, the association of farmer leader Lingaraj with AAP may create considerable impact here.
After the restructuring of Attabira Assembly constituency, in 2009 Congress candidate Nihar Ranjan Mahananda defeated his nearest BJD rival Snehangini Chhuria. Independent Milan Seth came third.
In the 2014 Assembly elections BJD’s Snehangini Chhuria defeated Nihar Ranjan Mahananda of the Congress. BJP’s Milan Seth came third.
Snehangini Chhuria bagged 69,102 votes, Nihar Ranjan Mahananda got 44,128 votes and Milan Seth got 33,735 votes.
The main local issues are lack of safe drinking water, transportation, lighting, health and education facilities in the rural areas of Attabira Assembly seat.
Even though agriculture is the chief occupation here both agriculture as well as the interests of farmers are not being addressed properly. The distress sale of paddy is one of the major issues troubling local farmers.
Although many varieties of vegetables are cultivated here, farmers do not get reasonable prices for them. In the absence of adequate cold storages farmers are compelled to sell perishable items to brokers at throwaway prices.
PNN