Cuttack: The Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency is most likely to witness a triangular contest in the 2019 elections.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has re-nominated two-time MLA Debashish Samantaray to fight from the constituency while Congress has fielded Muhammad Moquim, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Assembly polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has picked former minister Sameer Dey for the seat.
Nominees of the three political parties have intensified their campaigns after filing nominations Tuesday.
Samantaray as BJD candidate had won the seat twice consecutively in 2009 and 2014. BJP nominee Dey had been elected from the erstwhile Cuttack Assembly segment thrice consecutively within 1995 and 2004. Dey was also a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition governments in state in between 2000 and 2009.
Congress candidate Moquim has been acting as Cuttack city unit president of the party since last several years.
Samantaray had defeated Moquim by a margin of 14, 289 votes in 2014 Assembly elections. Samantaray was polled altogether 57, 663 votes while Moquim managed to secure 43,335 votes. BJP candidate Pradeep Swain secured the third position by getting 20, 552 votes.
“Several leaders from BJD and BJP were lobbying hard to secure nominations from their respective parties. However, Samantaray and Dey managed to get party tickets. Leaders who have failed to get tickets may cause some problems for Samantaray and Dey,” said a political observer.
Similarly, political observers feel that Congress nominee Moquim may face a challenge to get the backing of supporters of party leader Suresh Mahapatra, who had unsuccessfully contested polls from erstwhile Cuttack Assembly segment in 2004 and Barabati-Cuttack seat in 2014. However, Mahapatra recently made it clear that he would not fight the 2019 elections.
When contacted, Samantaray exuded confidence that BJD would retain the seat. “Our organisation is very strong in Barabati-Cuttack segment. BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik’s popularity and developmental works of his government would fetch votes for the party,” Samantaray said.
Congress nominee Moquim, however, claimed that both BJD and BJP have done nothing for the residents of Cuttack city. “They have failed to address basic civic issues of Cuttack. We hope that people will give a chance to us in the 2019 polls,” he said.
BJP candidate Dey too expressed confidence that the saffron party would win the seat. “We have executed several projects for Cuttack people during my tenure as a minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and good work for people would help us in the polls,” Dey said.