Berhampur: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to register a win in Ganjam district after the end of its alliance with the ruling party in 2008.
In the 2000 Assembly elections, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had given away Sorada and Chhatrapur Assembly seats in Ganjam to BJP as part of its seat-sharing agreement with the saffron party. Rama Chandra Panda of BJP had won from Chhatrapur Assembly segment and went on to become the deputy speaker of the state Assembly.
Dharakote royal Kishore Chandra Singhdeo representing the BJP was defeated from Sorada Assembly seat. Later, Singhdeo won from Sorada while Panda was defeated from Chhatrapur in the 2004 Assembly elections.
However, cracks appeared between both the parties and the alliance came to an end following the brutal murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal district in 2008.
Before that, BJD had kept Aska Lok Sabha seat for itself while giving away the Berhampur seat to BJP in the 1999 general elections. Naveen Patnaik won from Aska Lok Sabha seat while BJP candidate Anadi Sahoo tasted victory from the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. However, both the BJD and BJP contested separately in the 2009 elections.
Meanwhile, the state has witnessed three elections from 2009 to 2019. However, the BJP candidates have performed badly and eaten the dust each time in these elections. The BJP candidates came third in the two Lok Sabha seats and 13 Assembly seats in the 2014 general elections. Things came to such a pass that many of the BJP candidates even failed to retain their deposits in some of the seats in the district.
The grand old Congress party was active in the district from 2000 to 2014 elections. The party always stood second despite getting defeated from the BJD.
However, the oldest national party received a serious drubbing in 2019 elections due to weakened organisation. All its candidates were defeated from all the seats in the district and in majority of seats in the state. The party candidates were defeated in all the seats in the district and some of its candidates even lost their deposits in various Assembly segments including Berhampur.
The pocket votes of Congress went to BJD and the saffron party. As a result, BJP managed to secure the second position in the electoral politics. The Congress handed over the Aska Lok Sabha seat to Communist Party of India (CPI) while fielding an unknown and new face in the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. As a result, the ruling BJD managed to wrest the two Lok Sabha seats from the opposition candidates.
Meanwhile, with the 2024 general elections drawing near, the ruling BJD has started preparations in advance for a stupendous victory while the BJP is also rolling its sleeves up. However, the Congress party is yet to start its poll preparations.
BJP is dreaming of forming the government in the state by contesting on its own while the BJD leaders and party workers are confident of a resounding success. On the other hand, Congress party workers have become concerned over their leaders’ silence and indifferent attitude towards the elections.
PNN