Rourkela: Cement City Rajgangpur is one of the major Assembly segments of the state and this time, unlike 2019 elections, the political atmosphere has already become surcharged with aspiring candidates trying their level best to get party nominations. Scenario of the contest has not changed much as the three major parties — BJD, BJP and Congress — are going to be in a triangular contest. The position is slightly dicey for the BJD and the BJP because their list of ticket aspirants will get longer as the poll date approaches.
However, the Congress is confident with the party having its sitting MLA Rajan Ekka at the helm. In the 2019 Assembly elections, Congress’ Ekka won the seat with 53,913 votes with a brief margin of just 946 votes as BJD’s Mangala Kissan pooled 52,972 votes. BJP’s Narasingha Minz had garnered 52,896 votes, just 76 votes short of what BJD managed to grab. Like the previous polls, all three parties are well aware that Rajgangpur seat will again see a very close battle. For the BJD, it is a prestige issue this election year. The party will have to fight dissension and factionalism. Mangala, who is again the front-runner for the party ticket, will be 76 this year. He has a strong base among the ‘kissans’ who have a strong presence in Rajgangpur constituency. However, many in the party say that he doesn’t have his age and health with him this time and the advantage for Mangala is that he has not promoted anyone from his family.
Meanwhile, Benedict Tirkey (50) seems to be the next best choice for the party. Along with age, he has a strong appeal amongst the tribals of his community. Besides, the urban Rajgangpur also likes him. He had lost once earlier by a very close margin. A strong and staunch supporter of Minister Sarada Nayak, he was the party secretary and also president of the Adivasi Morcha. And the ‘no love’ relation between Sarada and Mangala is not a national secret. When Mangala failed to win last time, his followers had openly blamed it on Sarada.
Besides, Mangala’s proximity with local heavyweight Dilip Ray has not gone down well with party cadres here. Meanwhile, there was a buzz last year that Ekka may shift his loyalty from Congress and join the BJD. This made Mangala and Benedict nervous and if this happens, BJD will get a winning candidate, at least on paper, because of his performance last time.
In addition to this, given the ruling party’s penchant for female candidates, it may also spring one surprise out of the blue. Though no name has surfaced so far, Madhuri Lugun, the chairman of Rajgangpur Municipality, could have a ticket if the party plans to play the woman card. Given the scenario, Rajgangpur may prove tough for BJD as a little miscalculation will cost the party dearly.
Meanwhile, BJP is going to throw in all its might to wrest this seat from Congress and at the same time deny BJD of a possible victory. The saffron party, which was a close third in the 2019 elections, has reasons to sound confident given the voting pattern and number of votes the party pooled in the previous polls and the present religious fervour in people’s mind. “The difference is not very big for us. This time we are confident that Rajgangpur will be ours,” said BJP state spokesperson Dhiren Senapaty. Even today, saffron is the dominant colour in the skyline of Rajgangpur. The flags of Lord Ram, hoisted January 22, are yet to be brought down. The city has a very strong trader base dominated by Marwaris along with Odias. In addition, the city has past records of severe communal tension. The party is confident about the sizeable Hindu and small Sikh, Jain and other voters. However, infighting may prove detrimental for BJP because of the sheer numbers of aspirants. Apart from 2019 candidate Minz, there are a couple of others interested in the party ticket. Another name in the front is Upendra Pradhan. He was given a party ticket on two occasions and he lost. However, he is quite active at the constituency level nowadays. Apart from these two, Mahendra Majhi, a long-time cadre of the party, and Santosh Tirkey, who is an Oram and has age to his favour, are in the race for the saffron ticket.
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP