Bhubaneswar: It will be virtually a fight between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as election to six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats will be held in the third phase April 23.
Roadshows, election rallies and door to door campaign by the candidates dominated the electioneering in Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seats and also the 42 Assembly seats falling under these Parliamentary constituencies. The campaigning for the third phase polls came to an end Sunday evening.
Leaders of political parties like the BJP and the ruling BJD undertook whirlwind tours of the constituencies, mostly situated in coastal and central Odisha. Polling in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly segments coming under these constituencies will be held Tuesday under tight security.
For BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah conducted roadshows and addressed a series of election meetings asking the voters for a change of government in the state for all-round development of Odisha.
They were joined by several leaders like Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Uma Bharati and Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The BJP focused on one slogan, ‘change the corrupt and scam ridden Naveen Patnaik government which ruled for 19 years and give one chance to the BJP for a new Odisha and elect a CM which can speak and understand Odia language.’
On the other hand, BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik singlehandedly conducted extensive roadshows across the constituencies in a specially designed hi-tech bus and addressed several election meetings campaigning for the party candidates.
For the Congress it was almost a lackluster show as no central leaders visited the state till date for electioneering leaving the battlefield for the contesting candidates to campaign on their own strength to reach the voters.
The third phase elections will be a litmus test for the credibility and popularity of both Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 2014 elections, the ruling BJD had swept the polls bagging all the Six Lok Sabha seats and 37 Assembly seats.
In the six Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the third phase, the BJD has retained the candidature of Bhartrunari Mahatab ( Cuttack) and Pinaki Mishra (Puri) and brought new faces in the rest four Lok Sabha seats.
Banners and posters of the candidates and their leaders were seen more prominently in the constituencies while most of the candidates preferred to use vehicles decorated with the posters and party slogans.
Prominent candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections are BJP national spokesperson Dr Sambit Patra (Puri), former Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra (Cuttack), bureaucrat turned politicians Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), former Union Minister KP Singh Deo (Dhenkanal), Bhartruhari Mahatab (Cuttack) and CPM state secretary Janardan Pati (Bhubaneswar).
Similarly, in the Assembly elections at least six council of ministers of Naveen Patnaik government are seeking re-election from their respective seats.
This apart, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik (Ghasipura), former ministers Pradeep Maharathi (Pipili), Debi Prasad Mishra (Baramba), former BMC mayor Ananta Narayan Jena (Bhubaneswar Central) are also in fray.
The BJD campaign spearheaded by CM Naveen Patnaik has primarily focused on central negligence towards the state as Patnaik had vociferously attacked the BJP-led NDA government for neglecting the state in every sphere.
The Chief Minister also safely played the farmers’ card by stating the KALIA scheme introduced by his government had benefited 40 lakh farmers in the state but the BJP is ‘conspiring to block the scheme.’
Unable to get the clearance from the Election Commission on the release of second installment of assistance to the farmers under the KALIA scheme, Patnaik accused the BJP of conspiring to block the release of funds and announced that the day the BJD formed the government in the state, two installments amounting to Rs 10,000 will be credited to the farmers’ accountS under the scheme.
The BJP, on the other hand, sharpened its attack on the Chief Minister for taking the sole credit of supplying rice at Re 1 per kg, ‘large scale irregularities’ in the KALIA scheme and failure of the government to provide the minimum basic needs to the people despite being in power for 19 years.
Modi and Shah came down heavily on Naveen Patnaik for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat and PM Kissan Yojana depriving lakhs of poor people and farmers and announced that if BJP voted power in the state, these two schemes will be implemented in the state.
The Congress candidates solely banked on the party manifesto and the promises made to the people to raise the MSP for paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal, waive crop loan and provide benefits like free education to all girls in the state and minimum income guarantee to appease the voters.