Khurda: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate’s victory in Chilika Assembly constituency in 2019 elections has given a body blow to the dominance of Harichandan family in the segment.
BJD candidate Prasanta Jagadev has defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Prithviraj Harichandan by a margin of 10, 856 votes from Chilika.
Prasanta managed to secure 80, 133 votes while Prithviraj was polled 69,277 votes.
Prithviraj’s father Bishwa Bhusan Harichandan, a former minister, had won Chilika constituency in 1977 and 1990 elections. His uncle Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan had been elected from the segment in 2000, 2004 and 2014 Assembly elections in state.
In 2014 Assembly elections, Bibhuti Bhusan, as a BJP candidate, has defeated BJD’s Raghunath Sahoo by a slender margin. Bibhuti Bhusan had secured 69, 433 votes while Sahoo was polled 68, 892 votes.
It is worth mentioning here that, BJP nominees had won five Zilla Parishad seats out of six in Chilika in the 2017 panchayat elections in state.
However, the saffron party leadership had picked Prithviraj to fight the 2019 elections in the place of Bibhuti Bhusan. Expressing displeasure over Prithviraj’s nomination, some local BJP leaders joined BJD.
On the other hand, the BJD leadership shifted Prasanta from Begunia constituency to Chilika. The regional party denied ticket to former MLA Raghunath Sahoo.
Political observers had predicted that Prasanta, the sitting MLA from Begunia, would face a tough task to defeat BJP in Chilika. They were of the opinion that Sahoo’s supporters would not support Prasanta in the elections.
However, Prasanta managed to draw support from Sahoo’s loyalists and defeat Prithviraj.