G Udayagiri: G Udayagiri (No: 83) Assembly constituency will go to polls April 18 during the second phase of elections in the state. There are 1,93,180 voters and 251 polling booths here.
Seven candidates are in the fray, including an Independent. A tough fight is expected among the BJD, the BJP and the Congress.
The BJD, the BJP and the Congress have fielded Saluga Pradhan, Archana Pradhan and Syamaghana Pradhan respectively as their candidates.
Local leader Jacob Pradhan left the Congress after he was denied party ticket and filed nomination as an independent. The other two independents are Asis Mallik and tribal leader Pusura Kahanra.
Political observers said G Udayagiri will witness a triangular fight. The Independents and rebels will try to spoil the chances of party candidates.
All parties are eyeing the Congress fortress of Daringbadi as there are around 72,000 votes there.
Congress candidate Syamaghana, BJD candidate Saluga and Independent candidate Jacob are residents of Daringbadi.
Congress votes may get divided between Jacob and Syamaghana. The BJD is likely to exploit the fight between Jacob and Syamaghana for Congress votes. The local Congress unit’s former president Pradeep Pradhan who is contesting as an Independent will also bag some Congress votes.
The rebels of the BJP and the BJD are creating headache for both the parties.
The BJD’s district youth president Pratap Pradhan and state women’s wing president Jalina Priyadarshini were in the race for tickets. The party has not been able to regain the support of these two ticket hopefuls.
Jalina said the BJD candidate has not contacted her till now. When BJD’s Kandhamal Parliamentary seat candidate Achyuta Samanta was contacted, he said he is working for the party.
The BJP is also facing the same problem. There were four hopefuls for the party ticket from G Udayagiri. Adivasi Morcha president Basant Kumar Pradhan, district Krusak Morcha president Abeneswar Pradhan, district vice-president Managobind Pradhan and Swachh Bharat district coordinator Jaju Pradhan are unhappy as their claims for tickets were refused.
If the BJP and BJD are not able to regain the support of these leaders, the latter will cause substantial damage to both the parties.
Even though there is bickering among workers of the three major parties they are supporting their organisations in campaigning. Independent candidates have also intensified their campaign across G Udayagiri.
Congress candidates have been elected eight times from this constituency in the last 15 elections.
A BJD candidate won this seat only once in 2000 when Saluga Pradhan was elected as MLA. BJP candidate Manoj Pradhan was elected from this constituency in 2009.
Saluga’s wife is the block chairperson of Daringbadi. So his supporters hope that he will get more votes this time.
Congress candidate Shyamaghan is the sarpanch of Sirkabarg panchayat in Daringbadi block. His supporters said he will be able to secure the party’s fortress.
The BJP has fielded Archana Pradhan, a highly qualified woman and president of its Mahila Morcha, as its candidate. The BJP aims to cash in on the Modi wave and the support of women.
Frontline Congress leaders Pratap Pradhan and Jakesh Pradhan hope the Congress will again win this time.
BJP leaders Anil Kumar Pattnaik and Rambish Digal said the BJP will certainly win.
BJD leaders Krishna Kumar Panda and Kalu Charan Panda said the BJD is contesting here on the strength of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s ideology. They said the party’s Assembly and LS candidates will win with huge margins.
The people of G Udayagiri block are unhappy as no party has fielded a local. After 1977 no local leader has been elected MLA from G. Udayagiri block. It was in 1977 that a local, the late Sanjiv Pradhan of the Janata Party, was elected as an MLA from here. So the people here are likely to vote according to the clout of various political parties.
PNN