Baliguda: Poll campaign is in full swing in Baliguda Assembly segment, one of the three Assembly seats under the Kandhamal Parliamentary seat.
The three major parties – the BJD, the BJP and the Congress– are trying hard to bag as many votes as possible here.
The battle here has become a prestige issue for the Congress much more than other political party. Since 2000, this seat has become a non-Congress bastion.
The BJP won this seat in 2000, 2004 and 2009 while the BJD won it once in 2014. BJD’s Rajib Patra had won from this constituency in 2014.
Factors like internal bickering within parties, tickets being given to unfit candidates and the sitting MLA of BJD not getting party ticket will play a crucial role in the coming polls.
The vote percentages of major political parties in the four blocks of Baliguda Assembly constituency namely Baliguda, K Nuagaon, Tumudibandh and Kotagarh, indicated that the BJD, BJP and Congress candidates are headed for a tough contest.
It is believed that the BJD has a good number of votes in K Nuagaon, but its position in Baliguda, Tumudibandh and Kotagarh blocks is not that good. Kotagarh happens to be a Congress bastion, while the BJP has a good number of votes in Tumudibandh.
The votes cast in Baliguda block could play a decisive role in this seat in the coming elections, according to political observers.
The reason is that the vote percentages of major political parties are nearly the same here. The Congress won the Baliguda block chairman’s post while the post of Notified Area Council chairperson went to the BJD candidate.
This time, the BJD has fielded a new face from Baliguda. The party has given ticket to the block chairman of K Nuagaon, Chakramani Kanhar, instead of the sitting MLA Rajib Patra.
The Congress has also fielded a new face, Siman Mallik. But the BJP has given ticket to ex-MLA Karendra Majhi. Karendra won this seat twice consecutively.
In the last Assembly elections, Rajib got 37,606 votes and won. Klesha Pradhan of the Congress polled 34,910 votes and came second. Karendra came third with just 18,103 votes.
This time, both Rajib and Klesha lobbied for tickets from their respective parties, but were denied.
As both of them have a large number of supporters, this might affect the results in the coming Assembly elections.
There were 1,37,163 voters in 2014 in Baliguda. This has increased to 1,51,991 in 2019.
Siman Mallik of the Congress said, “I didn’t decide to contest on my own. I was made a candidate by the four block presidents and my party’s leaders. They put me in focus in last two and a half years and told me to strengthen the party. Keeping that in mind, I was working in panchayat, booth and block levels. I belong to a farming family. We farmers are facing many problems. If I win I will focus on issues pertaining to farmers.”
“The position of BJD is better this time in Baliguda,” asserted BJD district president Saroj Karna.
“Although Kotagarh is a Congress bastion people have started reposing faith in the development and welfare programmes of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The BJD will win the elections,” he added.
BJP district president Lingaraj Dalabehera said, “We are not giving importance to individual candidates. The party is supreme. We are working for the party and the BJP will do well in the 2019 Assembly elections.”
PNN