Bhubaneswar: The high decibel campaign for the November 3 by-poll in Dhamnagar Assembly constituency in Odisha fell silent at 6 pm Tuesday, 48 hours ahead of polling in the seat.
The campaign saw the ruling BJD and opposition BJP bitterly accuse each other of indulging in “cash for vote” to woo voters. Both parties have lodged complaints with the state chief electoral officer S K Lohani.
The saffron party has also alleged that BJD has utilised the women self help group members and government officers in favour of its candidate Abanti Das, the lone woman among the five candidates in the fray for the seat.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the face of BJP in the state, wrapped up the campaign for the saffron party candidate Suryabanshi Suraj by addressing a public meeting at Dhamnagar in the last hour.
He had visited the agrarian constituency earlier too in the course of a padayatra and road shows on October 28 and 29.
“We are optimistic that the people of Dhamnagar will pay their tribute to their beloved leader Bishnu Charan Sethi by blessing his son Suraj,” Pradhan said.
Union Minister Bisheswar Tudu too campaigned extensively for the BJP candidate. He had, however, caused a flutter by promising the people that he would rush a Central Water Commission expert team to mitigate the flood fear in the agrarian area.
Odisha BJP president Samir Mohanty, the party’s state in-charge D Purendeswar, Leader of Opposition J N Mishra, MPs and MLAs too campaigned for Suraj, the son of late Dhamnagar MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, whose untimely demises on September 19 necessitated the by-poll.
BJP president J P Nadda during his last visit to the state on September 30 had visited Bhadrak district and was present at a memorial meeting of late MLA BC Sethi.
The saffron party is optimistic of retaining Dhamnagar seat based on sympathy votes. In two by-polls held in Dhamnagar in 1961 and 1990, the wife and son of deceased MLAs had won the seat.
The BJP has taken the by-poll as a prestige issue ahead of the 2024 general election as Dhamnagar seat was won by the party in the 2019 state poll. The party had lost the Balasore sadar seat in the by-poll held amid the pandemic in 2020 though it had won it just a year ago.
BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did not hit the campaign trail but addressed the people of Dhamnagar on the virtual mode. In his addresses, which were shown to the people on big screens at 13 different places across the constituency on Monday, Patnaik appealed to the voters to elect Abanti Das and said he would personally take the responsibility of developing the constituency.
Around 12 ministers and 24 MLAs, MPs and other senior BJD leaders campaigned for Das.
A grassroots level BJD leader became the target of BJP when he announced at a poll meeting that the chief minister will sanction Rs one crore to the gram panchayat which casts most votes for Das.
The campaigning by BJD was not without the tinsel touch as Ollywood actress Varsha Priyadarshini hit the trail. Varsha is the estranged wife of BJD’s Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty, who has been kept away from campaigning since the 2019 general elections.
Another Odia film star Munna Khan, who is also BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP campaigned in Dhamnagar, which has at least 24,000 minority community voters.
OPCC president Sarat Pattnayak, AICC deputy Odisha in-charge Rudra Raju, Congress MLAs, MPs and MLAs extensively campaigned for party candidate Harekrushna Sethi, a new face.
“We are optimistic about winning in Dhamnagar as it is traditionally a Congress seat and the party has won it seven times since 1951. The people have now recognized that BJP and BJD are two sides of the same coin and they will vote for Congress,” Pattnayak said.
The campaigning was keen due to the presence of BJD rebel-turned-Independent candidate Rajendra Das.
Das, who was denied the party ticket in the last moment, said he did not have any star campaigners as the people of Dhamnagar canvas for him.
Also in the fray is the AAP candidate Anwar Sheikh. The party’s campaign was, however, low key in comparison to the other four.
Over 2.38 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 252 polling stations in the constituency. Around 107 polling stations have been identified as sensitive.
The seat has 1,23,038 male voters, 1,15,346 women voters, while 33 are from the third gender.
Polling will be held from 7 AM to 6 PM on November 3 and the counting of votes will be on November 6.
PTI