Baripada: Politics has heated up across Rairangpur Assembly seat (No. 28), an important segment of the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha.
Elections will be held here April 29 during the fourth phase. There is still no clear picture about contestants from the BJD, BJP, Congress and JMM at this point of time. However, ticket hopefuls of all the major parties are on their toes.
The Rairangpur constituency was redrawn in 2009. Reserved for ST, the seat consists of Bahalda, Jamda Tiring and Rairangpur blocks and a municipality with 2,18,522 voters.
In 2009, Congress leader Shyamcharan Hansdah defeated JMM’s Purnachandra Marandi. But the BJD wrested this seat from the Congress in 2014. BJD leader Saiba Sushil Kumar Hansdah defeated BJP’s Droupadi Murmu.
Saiba polled 51,062 votes, Droupadi 35,506 votes, Purnachandra 28,838 votes and Shyamcharan 19,075 votes.
If polls held before 2009 are examined it can be found that this seat had opted for the Congress seven times.
The Congress won this seat seven times between 1951 and 2014, non-Congress parties four times, the BJP twice and the BJD once.
The coming elections will see a four-cornered contest among the BJD, BJP, Congress and JMM, political analysts say.
All these parties have many ticket hopefuls. The BJD organisation is strong, but infighting is a problem for the party. The political scenario here keeps changing continuously.
BJD workers say that if infighting is not stopped it may cost the party dear during elections. MLA Saiba Sushil Kumar Hansdah is again hopeful of getting the party ticket, but infighting could spoil his chances. Some frontline BJD leaders have been openly challenging Saiba and have been organising meetings.
The BJD organisation here is vertically split with one camp led by the MLA and another by his rivals.
Radiating confidence Saiba said, “Except for some vested interests, the people and party leader Naveen Patnaik are with me. I have public support.”
Others who are in the BJD ticket race are Kashinath Hembram (he recently left BJP and joined BJD), Tiring block chairperson Jemanai Sundhi, former ZP member Jalen Bhadra, former chairman of Jamda block Purnachandra Marandi and Prabir Majhi.
In the last panchayat elections, the BJP registered a huge success by snatching seven of the eight ZP seats. But the saffron party has not been able to consolidate its base here.
The BJP has several leaders in the race for tickets like Nabacharan Majhi, Bijay Nayak, Jadunath Murmu, Fagu Marandi and Ramchandra Hansdah.
The Congress too has several ticket hopefuls – two former MLAs Shyamcharan Hansdah, Laxman Majhi, Helena Bage, Amar Pradhan and Deo Majhi. Some new faces are also in the race for tickets.
The JMM also has considerable influence. Former MLA Prahallad Purty, Ramchandra Murmu and Sunaram Tudu are in the race for the party ticket.
As the JMM and the Congress have an electoral understanding it is not clear which party will get this seat.
There is also a possibility that party hoppers may contest as Independents if denied tickets.
Kishore Sharma, a resident of Rairangpur, said, “During elections leaders come begging for votes. But they forget the constituency after winning the elections. The voters have now decided to vote for a leader who will take up public causes.”
2014 Assembly election results
Party Candidate Votes
BJD Saiba Sushul Ku Hansda 51,062
BJP Droupadi Murmu 35,506
JMM Purnachandra Marandi 28,838
Cong Shyamcharan Hansdah 19,075
PNN