Kendrapara: The Rajnagar Assembly constituency is all set for a bitter fight between the BJD, the Congress and the BJP. The seat consists of 18 panchayats in Pattamundai block and 29 panchayats of Rajnagar block and the Pattamundai municipality.
The late Biju Patnaik won from Rajnagar as a candidate of the Utkal Congress in a 1971 by-poll and also in 1974.
The voters of Rajnagar had created a record by sending the late Nalinikanta Mohanty to the Assembly seven times continuously from 1977 to 2004. He won five times as a candidate of the Janata Party, Janata Dal and the BJD.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik suspended him from the BJD as he was involved in a Vigilance case.
He was minister from 1990 to 1995 and from 2000 to 2002, but failed to bring major development projects to his constituency. The 2009 general elections proved to be his nemesis when he lost to BJD’s Alekha Jena by 4,335 votes.
But his son Anshuman Mohanty won in 2014 from Rajnagar Assembly seat encashing the sympathy wave triggered by his father’s death.
In 2014, Anshuman defeated BJD nominee Dhruba Charan Sahu by 5,613 votes. Anshuman got 75,234 votes while Dhruba bagged 69,621 votes.
The process for the 2019 general elections has started, and the hopefuls of all political parties are busy collecting supporters and organising meetings to win the seat.
Sources said there are several ticket hopefuls in the BJD. Some of them are district BJD president Dhruba Sahu and Krutibash Patra, the chairman of the Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (APICOL), Sanjay Jena, the brother of minister Pratap Jena, Nishikanta Pradhan, the former district BJD youth wing president, Durgashis Mohanty, the former block chairman of Kendrapara, Ajit Nayak, Narottam Jena, Basant Sahani and BJD women’s wing leader Sunita Pradhan.
The sitting Congress MLA of Rajnagar, Anshuman Mohanty and Mitu Das, the Kendrapara LS seat Youth Congress leader, are in the race for the party ticket.
Alekha Jena, the former BJD MLA of Rajnagar, who joined the BJP some years back, is ready to contest. BJP leader Ajay Behera is also in the ticket race from Rajnagar.
BJD hopefuls say that if they get the ticket they would approach voters with the development projects and poverty alleviation and social security schemes executed in Rajnagar in the last five years, although the local MLA belongs to the Congress.
Some of the major projects implemented in Rajnagar are the rehabilitation of the people of Satabhaya facing sea erosion at Bagapatia, the geo-synthetic tube sea wall at Pentha, strengthening of sea embankments under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) project, construction of a concrete road to Bhitarkanika National Park and providing municipality status to Pattamundai NAC.
Anshuman, who is most likely to get the Congress ticket, can win from here a second time as he was with the people in their good and bad times and due to the development projects implemented here in the last five years.
He is likely to raise the increasing cases of rape and crimes against women, the worsening law and order situation and the corruption in awarding government tenders.
The BJP hopeful, Alekha Jena, the former BJD MLA of Rajnagar, who is the first choice of his party and who had defeated the late Nalinikanta Mohanty, is likely to focus on the BJD government’s ‘corruption’ and local issues. He will also try to cash in on the Modi wave.
Political observers say that voters will go for the candidate who is likely to provide them basic facilities like good roads and safe drinking water and fills up the vacant posts of doctors and teachers in the constituency’s rural pockets.
This time a triangular fight between the BJD, the Congress and the BJP is on the cards here.
2014 election results
Party Candidate Votes
Cong Anshuman Mohanty 76,806
BJD Dhruba Charan Sahoo 71,377
BJP Jnandev Beura 6,632
PNN
