Bhubaneswar: It will virtually be a direct fight between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as election to six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats goes to poll in third phase on April 23.
Road shows, election rallies, door to door campaign by the candidates dominated the electioneering in Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seats and also the 42 Assembly seats falling under these parliamentary constituencies.
For BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Party President Amit Shah conducted road shows and addressed series of election meetings and asked the voters for a change of government in the state for an all round development of Odisha.
They were joined by several central leaders like Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Drinking and sanitation Minister Uma Bharati and Union Minister of minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The BJP focused on one slogan change the corrupt and scam ridden Naveen Patnaik government which ruled for 19 years and give one chance to the BJP for a new Odisha and elect a CM which can speak and understand Odia language.
On the other hand, BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik single handedly conducted an extensive road shows across the constituencies in specially designed hi tech bus and addressed several election meetings campaigning for the party candidates.
For the Congress it was almost a lackluster show as no central leaders visited the state till date for electioneering leaving the battle field for the contesting candidates to campaign on their own strength to reach the voters.
The third phase elections in Coastal, Western and Northen parts of Odisha will be a litmus test for the credibility and popularity of both Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 2014 elections, the ruling BJD had swept the polls bagging all the six Lok Sabha seats and 37 of these Assembly seats.
In the six Lok Sabha seats going to poll in the third phase, the BJD had retained the candidature of Bhartrunari Mahatab (Cuttack) and Pinaki Mishra (Puri) and brought new faces in the rest five Lok Sabha seats.
Banners and posters of the candidates and their leaders were seen more prominently in the constituencies while most of the candidates preferred to use vehicles decorated with the posters and party slogans to move villages and lanes and by lanes in the urban areas for campaigning.
