Chandbali: The Congress is yet to name its nominee for the Chandbali Assembly seat in Bhadrak, while the BJP has fielded former minister Manmohan Samal and the BJD has reposed faith in Byomkesh Ray.
Election to this seat will be held in the fourth phase – April 29, while filing of nomination will start from April 2. Delay in finding a suitable nominee for the seat has left the Congress cadres frustrated.
The Chandbali seat once used to be a Congress bastion. Between 1951 and 2014, elections were held 15 times of which Congress alone won nine times.
The BJD has won twice, while the BJP, Odisha Jana Congress, Janata Dal, and Janata Party won it once each.
However, for the last several years, the vote bank of the Congress has been declining here. Given such a situation, winning back the seat has been a tough task for the Congress, say political observers.
Congress leader Amiya Mohapatra had polled 50,884 votes in the 2009 election. Mahapatra was again fielded in 2014, but his tally came down to 43,674.
If the results of the last panchayat polls are taken into account, the Congress’ vote was 34,000. Many leaders have crossed over to the other parties, leaving the state leadership worried.
Hence, political pundits are unsure of the party’s electoral success in 2019.
The Congress has several ticket aspirants including Amiya Mohapatra, Digambar Das, Satyananda Rout, Abhisekh Rout, Jyoti Prakash Mohanty and Manoj Biswal.
Amiya and Digambar belong to Dhamara area. The two leaders had managed to elect a Congress-backed leader as block chairperson in 2017 with the help of some BJD leaders.
On the other hand, the BJD and BJP nominees have set their eyes on the Congress vote bank for their victory.
It is said that after selection of candidate, deprived aspirants may revolt and the party may head for a split.
PNN