Berhampur: Polling in all the seven Assembly constituencies in the Berhampur Parliamentary seat is scheduled for April 11.
The political scenario here has warmed up, and all candidates have ramped up their campaigns.
This time the BJD, the BJP and the Congress have fielded new faces in the Berhampur Assembly seat.
The ruling BJD has fielded Bikram Panda. Bikram had contested as a Congress candidate from here four times between 2000 and 2014 and was defeated. He was the main contender last time against incumbent BJD MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik.
Bikram joined the BJD April 4, 2018 in the presence of party supremo Naveen Patnaik. This time the BJD gave its ticket to Bikram instead of Chyau Patnaik.
The BJP has fielded its Ganjam district unit president Kanhu Charan Pati in Berhampur.
In 2009, he had contested as a BJP candidate from the Chikiti Assembly constituency. But he ended up far behind the BJD and the Congress. He is now a resident of Berhampur and has bagged the BJP ticket in this Assembly seat.
After becoming the BJP’s Ganjam district president he strived hard to strengthen its organisation which was practically dormant.
He also took the initiative to fight the BJD’s policies, raising issues like corruption and the ‘PC’ culture. He is hoping to cash in on the BJP’s organisational strength and contacts with voters.
The Congress has fielded Lingaraj Choudhury in Berhampur Assembly constituency. He is one of the 99 secretaries of the OPCC. Even though he was absent from most meetings and programmes of the party he managed to get the ticket due to his close links with OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik.
The other hopefuls for the Congress ticket were DCC working president Pitabas Panda, Dipak Pattanayak and city Congress president Pramod Jena.
Incumbent BJD MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik represented this Assembly constituency five times (first from the Janata Dal and then the BJD), between 1995 and 2014.
Meanwhile, two Independents and a candidate from the SUCI have also filed nomination papers.
It is now clear that there will be a triangular fight between the BJD, the BJP and the Congress from this seat.
PNN