Koraput: A four-cornered contest is on cards in Laxmipur Assembly seat under Koraput Lok Sabha constituency with the BJD, the BJP and the Congress making all out efforts to win this seat.
Polling will be held for Laxmipur Assembly seat in the first phase April 11.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has little stake in Odisha politics, is giving a tough fight to the Congress while the BJP has become a stumbling block in the success of the BJD.
A total of five candidates are contesting from this constituency. The BJD has fielded its Zilla Parishad chairperson Prabhu Jani while Kailash Kulusika is contesting for the third time on a Congress ticket.
The BJP has fielded a new face, Kumud Chandra Saunta, while Anita Sagaria, the wife of former Koraput MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria, is the candidate from the BSP. Purna Mandingi is the candidate of CPI (ML).
Political analysts claimed that that there will be a four-cornered contest among the candidates of BJD, Congress, BJP and BSP.
The Laxmipur Assembly constituency (141-ST) comprising the areas under Bandhugaon, Narayanpatna, Laxmipur and Dasamantpur blocks in Koraput district is reserved for the candidates of Scheduled Tribe community.
This Assembly seat has the reputation of electing a different candidate and of different party in every poll since the 1985 elections. No party has been able to retain the seat twice in succession. BJD and Congress have been elected twice each from this seat in the four elections held after 2000.
In the 2009 elections, 10 candidates had contested from this seat. The contest was mainly between BJD’s Jhina Hikaka and Congress’s Hema Gamang with the former defeating the latter by 25,095 (32.47 per cent) votes. Hema received 21,689 (28.06 per cent) votes.
Kailash Kulusika contested as an Independent and secured only 7,577 votes after he failed to get a ticket from the Congress.
BSP’s Gupteshwar Jani received 5,267 votes and was placed in the fourth position while BJP’s Gopinath Kadasia came fifth by polling only 5,078 votes.
However, in 2014 elections, Kailash Kulusika became the Congress candidate and won the election by receiving 53,429 votes.
Hema Gamang, who contested on a BJD ticket, received only 30,956 votes while the BJP’s Siba Muduli received 9,527 votes and came third.
Jayaram Pangi, who was a strong leader of the BJD, was sacked from the ruling party on the charge of indulging in anti-party activities after the 2017 panchayat elections. Pangi joined the BJP which helped the saffron party strengthen its position in the area.
The BJP has fielded Pangi as its Lok Sabha candidate from Koraput Lok Sabha seat who carries enormous clout in Bandhugaon and Narayanpatna areas.
Pangi and the party’s Assembly candidate Kumud Saunta are trying to cash in on the former’s influence in those areas. Pangi and Saunta are moving from door to door in these areas and requesting the people to vote them for the Modi government.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has expedited the move by holding party’s Vijay Sankalp Samavesh at Laxmipur where he requested the people to vote for the BJP candidates.
BJD candidate Prabhu, a resident of Dasamantpur block, is trying to win this election banking on the developmental plank of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The ruling BJD has consolidated its position in this area by winning all the seven Zilla Parishad zones in the Assembly segment during the last panchayat elections.
This has bolstered the party prospects as leaders and workers pull out all stops to wrest this seat. Observers, however, said that the infighting in the ruling party might cost it dearly.
Similarly, the Congress is also facing infighting. This has intensified after former Koraput MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria left the Congress and joined the BSP. He is said to be not on good terms with incumbent MLA Kailash Chandra Kulusika.
The bickering in the Congress resurfaced after some party workers left the party and joined the BSP during a recent election campaigning at Podashgad haat.
When Sagaria arrived at Podashgad haat to campaign for his wife, some Congress workers joined him.
This led to an altercation between the Congress candidate Kulusika and Sagaria. However, it is difficult predict who will win the election.
Total Voters-1,68,734
Male Voters-79,776
Female Voters-88,944
Others-14
Total Booths-223
PNN